A potential class-action lawsuit claims Gov. Kim Reynolds’ refusal to pay pandemic-related jobless assistance to 30,000 Iowans was unlawful and deprived those individuals of “life-sustaining benefits.”
Lawyers for Karla Smith of Pleasantville and Holly Bladel of Clinton have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa claiming the two women and thousands of other Iowans were illegally denied unemployment benefits in 2021 due to the actions of Reynolds and Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend.
The lawsuit alleges Reynolds and Townsend violated Iowa’s Employment Security law, which requires the state to “cooperate with the United States Department of Labor to the fullest extent” and make available to Iowans “all advantages available under the provisions of the Social Security Act that relate to unemployment compensation.”
Lawyers for Smith and Bladel are also seeking class-action status in the case in an effort to recover damages for thousands of Iowans who may have been harmed by Reynolds’ decision.
The state has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.
Iowa was one of at least 25 states, all led by Republican governors, that chose to terminate federal, pandemic-related unemployment assistance before the programs expired in 2021. The states did so largely in response to labor shortages, claiming the enhanced benefits were encouraging people to remain unemployed rather than return to the workforce.
At the time, the U.S. Congress Joint...
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