Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute filed its third amicus brief with the Ohio Supreme Court in Bowling v. DeWine, urging the court to hear the case (again) and affirm that Ohio’s Cooperation Statute does not require the governor to accept federal money every time it is offered.

“Even before the Ohio General Assembly clarified Ohio law, Governor DeWine was well within his authority to opt out of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute. “By hearing Bowling v. DeWine again, the Ohio Supreme Court has the opportunity to make clear Ohio’s Cooperation Statute does not require the governor to accept every federal dollar offered.”

In its first amicus brief, The Buckeye Institute urged the Ohio Supreme Court to hear the case. After the court accepted the case, Buckeye filed a second amicus brief arguing that the governor had the authority to withdraw Ohio from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program. On November 22, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed Bowling v. DeWine as moot but did not provide lower courts with clarity as to why it dismissed the case. Exploiting this ambiguity, Bowling went back to court and both the trial court and Ohio’s Tenth District Court of Appeals ruled in Bowling’s favor, overlooking the fact that in the intervening period the Ohio General Assembly acted and revised the Cooperation Statute at question to make it clear that the governor is not required to accept federal money any time it is offered.

In 2021, Candy Bowling sued the state, alleging that the Cooperation Statute—first enacted in the 1930s—required the governor to accept every federal dollar offered, regardless of strings that might be attached or whether the additional unemployment benefits might slow Ohio’s economic recovery. At the time, the trial court upheld the governor’s authority to opt out of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program. Ohio’s Tenth District Court of Appeals reversed that decision, essentially ordering the $300 per week unemployment bonus to be reinstated and paid retroactively. 

# # #