Last week, landlords and real estate agents from Alabama and Georgia asked the high court to stop the latest iteration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) moratorium on certain residential evictions.
On Thursday, the group of landlords won the bid from the Supreme Court to block pandemic-related eviction protections for renters across the country, overturning the Biden administration’s latest eviction ban.
A divided court, with liberal Justices in dissent, stated that a “careful review” of the case “makes clear that the applicants are virtually certain to succeed on the merits of their argument that the CDC has exceeded its authority.”
“It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken. But that has not happened,” the court said. “Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.”
The court also stated, “if a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”
The White House released a statement late Thursday saying it is “disappointed” that the Supreme Court blocked the moratorium amid another surge in COVID-19 cases.
“In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continued 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, Cabinet Agencies – to urgently act to prevent evictions,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
