Coronavirus: Supreme Court strikes down eviction moratorium

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday ended a national moratorium on evictions, putting hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing shelter.

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The vote was 6-3, with all three liberal justices dissenting, The Washington Post reported.

A group of landlords and real estate trade groups in Alabama and Georgia challenged the extension of a moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the newspaper reported. The moratorium began on Aug. 3 and was scheduled to run through Oct. 3.

In an unsigned opinion released Thursday night, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed that the CDC did not have the power to order such a ban.

“Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” the court wrote in its eight-page opinion. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the dissenting opinion, The New York Times reported.

“These questions call for considered decision-making, informed by full briefing and argument,” Breyer wrote. “Their answers impact the health of millions. We should not set aside the CDC’s eviction moratorium in this summary proceeding.”

In a statement Thursday night, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the eviction opinion meant “families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.”

The central legal question in the case was whether the CDC was entitled to act on its own. In June, with the earlier moratorium about to expire, the court voted 5-4 in favor of the Biden administration, allowing that measure to stand, the Post reported.

However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who cast the deciding vote in that decision, said he believed any extension of the ban would require explicit congressional action, according to the newspaper.

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