Eviction Moratorium

On Tuesday, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new eviction moratorium that would last until Oct. 3… ​​The announcement was a reversal for the Biden administration, which allowed an earlier moratorium to lapse over the weekend after saying a Supreme Court ruling prevented an extension.” (AP News)

Many on both sides are critical of the Biden administration, arguing that the moratorium exceeds the executive branch’s constitutional authority:

"The law the CDC relies on to justify its unilateral eviction ban authorizes the agency to impose measures such as ‘inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, and destruction of animals,’ not to freeze the rental housing market month after month in nearly the entire country. Many landlords are themselves desperate, on the hook to keep up their properties, pay taxes and service loans whether their tenants pay their rent. Justice Kavanaugh in June clearly signaled willingness to disregard their plight — and the law’s limitations — for another few weeks, not months…

“It is not the Biden administration’s fault that states have been slow to get federal rental aid to needy Americans. But the administration’s only reasonable options were to push states to get their acts together and to request that Congress give the CDC the authority it needed to reimpose an eviction ban. Indeed, the onus remains on states and localities; they cannot count on the new moratorium, issued on shaky legal ground, to absolve them of responsibility to aid renters. If the Trump administration had ignored a direct warning from the Supreme Court, Democrats would rightfully line up to condemn the president. Mr. Biden does not get a pass on the rule of law because his heart is in the right place." (Editorial Board, Washington Post)