A Baltimore Circuit Court judge on Saturday blocked the state from ending its participation in several pandemic-related unemployment programs, including the $300-per-week unemployment checks that Republicans say are keeping people out of work.
Maryland would have ended its participation in the programs on Saturday if not for the judge’s ruling.
Gov. Larry Hogan is one of more than two dozen Republican governors who moved to end participation in those programs earlier than they are set to expire.
Democrats decried the move, saying that many Marylanders still depend on the benefits. Hogan’s administration said the federal benefits are keeping Marylanders on the sidelines and slowing down the economic recovery by creating a labor shortage.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that ending the program early would cut off funds from 300,000 people who badly need it.
Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill sided with the plaintiffs in a ruling on Saturday.
“Plaintiffs have shown in their affidavits with varying degrees of severity that the immediate loss of benefits, when some of them already are in vulnerable financial condition, likely will lead to loss of housing, short-term diversion of effort to less valuable employment, and/or significant emotional consequences,” the judge wrote, according to Delmarva Now.- READ MORE
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