Md: Judge Blocks Gov. Hogan's (R) Decision To End Enhanced Pandemic Unemployment Benefits [View all]

Washington Post, July 3, 2021. - Excerpts, Ed.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge on Saturday temporarily blocked Gov. Larry Hogan’s order to end enhanced federal unemployment benefits, allowing hundreds of thousands of jobless workers in Maryland to continue to collect them. Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill issued a temporary restraining order, becoming the second judge in the United States in recent days to halt a governor’s order on unemployment benefits related to the pandemic from taking effect.

Maryland is one of at least three states where lawsuits have been filed by jobless workers.

The restraining order lasts 10 days, and the judge said he will schedule a full hearing on the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against Hogan’s order in the coming days. Hogan said he plans to appeal the ruling. Hogan’s order would have ended benefits on Saturday, cutting off residents from a source of extra aid on top of state unemployment benefits.

Fletcher-Hill said it appeared likely Hogan does not have the authority to end the program early and it would cause serious harm to thousands of state residents still struggling with the economic fallout from the coronavirus. “The impact of the pandemic has been universal, but the brief stories of these plaintiffs reminds the court that the impact of the pandemic has been cruelly uneven,” Fletcher-Hill wrote in his opinion.

..Hogan has said the enhanced benefits were no longer necessary because of the widespread availability of vaccines and a tight labor market, which he said made it important for the jobless to get back to work.. At least 25 states led by Republican governors have decided to end the enhanced benefits, which were created by Congress to cushion the blow of the coronavirus pandemic, and are authorized and funded through September 6...

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