Washington – The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the new federal ban on evicting the Biden administration, awarding an offer from a group of homeowners to block pandemic-related protections for tenants facing eviction in most of the country.
In an unsigned opinion with the three Liberal judges disagreeing, the split court said a “careful review” of the case “makes it clear that applicants are virtually certain to be successful at the heart of their argument that the CDC they have exceeded their authority “.
“One thing would be for Congress to have specifically authorized the action that the CDC have taken. But that has not happened,” the court said. “Instead, the CDC has imposed a national moratorium on evictions based on a decades-long statute that allows it to implement measures such as fumigation and pest extermination. It diminishes credulity by believing that this statute gives the CDC the general authority it claims. “
The court said that “if you want to continue a federally imposed eviction moratorium, Congress must specifically authorize it.”
The White House issued a statement Thursday afternoon, saying the Biden administration is “disappointed” that the Supreme Court blocked the moratorium amid another increase in COVID-19 cases.
“In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continuing risk of COVID-19 transmission, President Biden is once again calling on all entities that can prevent evictions (from cities and states to local courts, landlords, agencies of the cabinet) to act urgently to prevent evictions, ”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Stephen Breyer noted the recent rise in COVID-19 transmission rates and warned that allowing the resumption of evictions could have dangerous consequences for public health.
“The CDC is only aimed at those people who have nowhere else to live, in areas with dangerous levels of community transmission,” Breyer wrote, along with Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. “These people may end up with relatives, in shelters or looking for beds in other congregating facilities where the doubly contagious Delta variant threatens to spread rapidly.”
The questions raised by the case, Breyer continued, “call for considered decision-making, informed through comprehensive information and an argument,” and “their answers affect the health of millions.”
Alabama and Georgia homeowners and real estate agents asked the high court to stop last week the latest iteration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moratorium on certain residential evictions, returning to the Supreme Court a battle for the ban a second time.
Landlords argued that the CDC ban, released after public protest by some congressional Democrats, was intended to “gain time to distribute rental assistance and annoy some lawmakers,” and warned that the ban harmed landlords. they lose up to $ 19 billion every month.
“Unless this court leaves the stay and does so quickly, Congress will know that it can legislate through pressure campaigns and settlements instead of bicameralism and presentation, the Executive will know that it can ignore the opinions of a majority of judges with impunity , and this court will know that its carefully considered rulings will be flatly ignored, ”they told the court.
But the Biden administration had urged judges to leave the ban intact and told the Supreme Court that since the CDC last indicated it would end the eviction moratorium on July 31, “the trajectory of the pandemic has changed since then, unexpectedly, dramatically and for the worse “due to the highly contagious Delta variant.
Initially issued by the Trump administration in September 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 i extended several times, the Supreme Court maintained the previous CDC eviction ban in place with a 5-4 decision in late June. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who cast the fifth crucial vote, said he believed the health agency was likely to exceed its legal authority by issuing the national moratorium, but that it left the order intact because it was expected to expire. on July 31st.
Days before the moratorium ended, the White House said the CDC would not issue another extension and urged Congress Act. But lawmakers did not and the ban on evictions expired. In protest of the expiration, Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri he slept outside the United States Capitol to pressure the Biden administration to grant a repair to the tenants.
Biden initially rejected requests to act and said his administration would be unable to extend protections for tenants in light of the Supreme Court decision. But Congress Democrats continued their campaign of pressure, and eventually the CDC issued a new ban to areas of “substantial and high” COVID-19 transmission levels through October 3, which covered more than 90% of the country.
Biden acknowledged that the new moratorium may not go beyond constitutionality, but told reporters that “by the time it is litigated, it will probably give extra time as we get these $ 45 billion to the people who are, in fact, behind the rent and they don’t have the money ”.
Congress provided $ 46 billion in rental assistance in two COVID-19 relief packages, but the help has been slow to reach tenants struggling to pay rent during the pandemic. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that only $ 5.1 billion has been disbursed so far, and that 89% of the money approved by Congress for the federal rental assistance program has not yet been distributed.
The most recent CDC order caused another round of legal challenges, with Alabama and Georgia homeowners again asking a federal district court in the District of Columbia to stop the moratorium.
A U.S. district judge refused to put the ban on pending evictions, but questioned its legal basis. A group of three DC federal appeals court judges also allowed the moratorium to remain in place.