Friends:

Its game on in the Ohio Supreme Court as of today.

Governor DeWine filed his Merit Brief today in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking to overturn the 10th District Court of Appeals decision that he did not have the authority to terminate $3000 of FPUC benefits to unemployed Ohioans. You can read the brief here.

In addition the Ohio Chamber of Commerce ( and related business iobbyists) filed an Amicus Brief, as did The Buckeye Institute, conservative think tank. Here is the Buckeye Institute Brief

There is very little new in the briefs. The briefs of the Chamber of Commerce and the Buckeye institute work hard to twist and ye or nothing increase employment in our state and they fail to acknowledge the real reasons employers are having trouble finding workers like low pay, unsafe working conditions, difficulty in finding daycare and responsibilities to protect vulnerable family members in the face of a still present pandemic.

The Governor's brief regurgitates the arguments made before by twisting the words of the Unemployment Statute and the Constitution

Our Brief is due before the end of the month. We are going to work hard to put the best legal arguments forward. The Governor is entitled to a reply brief and then the Court will scheduled Oral Argument probably in the spring. We are hopeful that interested parties will file an amicus brief in support of the unemployed workers.

I know this process has moved slowly but I believe that are arguments are sound and we have a good chance of success on the merits.

Marc