Ohio Supreme Court declines to take up former YSU bookstore worker’s case

The Ohio Supreme Court declined Tuesday to take up a fired Youngstown State University bookstore employee’s battle for his job, appearing to end the worker’s yearslong saga.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor signed the single-sentence entry declining Andre Brady’s appeal without elaboration.

Brady had turned to the high court after a lower court determined in February that it lacked the jurisdiction to review core legal claims surrounding the elimination of his union job as a sales manager at the YSU bookstore.

Brady lost his job of 19 years in 2016, as his employer and other public universities were being pressured by then-Republican Gov. John Kasich to reduce costs and pass the savings along to students. Brady has been fighting the layoff ever since.

His lawyer told the appellate court during oral arguments in August that his client only wanted the opportunity to make his case that Youngstown State University lacked legitimate “reasons of economy” when it closed its bookstore. Lacking verifiable economic reasons violated his union contract, Brady argued.

But both the appellate and high courts have now ended their involvement on technical grounds, so that Brady never had a chance to make his case.