Supreme Court Ends Biden Administration’s Eviction Moratorium; White House ‘Disappointed'

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ended the Biden administration's eviction moratorium, blocking the 60-day extension made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the program.

The Supreme Court ends protections for almost 3.5 million people across the U.S, who said they faced eviction in the next two months.

Supreme Court: CDC's Eviction Moratorium Lacks Authority

The end of the Biden administration's eviction moratorium stemmed from a challenge to the policy brought by a coalition of landlords and real estate trade groups from Georgia and Alabama. They argued that the law on which the CDC relied did not allow it to implement the current ban.

The Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration's arguments supporting the CDC's authority in an unsigned opinion. The high court noted that the CDC lacked the authority to reimposed the eviction moratorium under federal law without explicit congressional authorization.

The Supreme court said if a federally imposed eviction moratorium was to continue, "Congress must specifically authorize it." According to reports, the three liberal justices on the high court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, all dissented.

On August 3, the CDC has extended the eviction moratorium for 60 days or until October 3, a move that President Joe Biden later admitted may be unconstitutional and one that risks being challenged in court. Biden noted that the order was not likely to pass "constitutional muster."

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the moratorium would temporarily halt evictions in places that "experience substantial and high levels" of COVID transmissions.

Walensky noted that the evictions of tenants for failure to pay rent could be detrimental to public health control measures to slow the spread of COVID.

The CDC director added that "such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences" would be difficult to reverse. According to CDC, it would cover about 90 percent of renters in the country.

In a dissenting opinion, Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer noted that a surge of evictions could lead to more COVID infections.

The nationwide moratorium on residential evictions has expired last July 31. Earlier, the White House said it could not extend the eviction ban and then urged Congress to do it. However, the House Democrats failed to collect enough votes to prevent its lapse.

When the Supreme Court allowed a one-month extension of the eviction moratorium last month, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh has already said that any further extensions would have to go through Congress.

White House Reacts on Supreme Court's Decision on Eviction Moratorium

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration was "disappointed" in the decision of the Supreme Court. Psaki noted that the president is once again calling on cities, states, local courts, landlords, Cabinet agencies "to urgently act to prevent evictions."

Some states, including California, New Jersey, and Maryland, have already placed their own temporary bans on evictions. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department on Wednesday said states and localities only distributed 11 percent of the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance.

But the department noted that the latest data showed that the pace of distribution increased in July over June. It added that nearly a million households had received the help.

According to the department, a total of $5.1 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance was distributed last month. It was slightly higher from the $3 billion in June and $1.5 billion in May.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: What to Know About the Eviction Moratorium as it Nears Expiration Again - From PBS NewsHour