Supreme Court Blocks CDC's Eviction Moratorium
By Bill Galluccio
August 27, 2021
The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The unsigned majority opinion said that the agency lacked the authority to ban landlords from evicting tenants during the coronavirus pandemic.
"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," the opinion said. "It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts."
The majority said that while preventing evictions during the pandemic was in the public's interest, that does not give federal agencies unlimited power to enact any policy they wish.
"It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant," the opinion said. "But our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends."
"If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it," the opinion continued.
The White House condemned the ruling.
"The Biden administration is disappointed that the Supreme Court has blocked the most recent CDC eviction moratorium while confirmed cases of the delta variant are significant across the country," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. "As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19."
In July, the Supreme Court upheld a previous moratorium that was about to expire, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote he would not sign off on extending it past the deadline, arguing that only Congress could do that.
Congress failed to act to extend the moratorium, and a few days later, the CDC announced a new, tailored version, which prevented evictions in counties with a high rate of COVID-19 infections. A group of landlords immediately sued to block the new eviction ban.