Members representing landlords in two states asked the Supreme Court to block President Biden's extension of the moratorium on residential evictions on Friday after a federal appeals court allowed the controversial order to stand.
The National Association of Realtors' Alabama and Georgia chapters asked the Supreme Court to lift the moratorium just hours after a three-judge panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously voted to reject their request to allow evictions to proceed in house 4 The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on the legality of the extension.
The order to stay cannot stand, said the groups in their filing. As five members of this Court indicated less than two months ago, Congress never gave the CDC the staggering amount of power it claims.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reinstated the moratorium on June 3rd, days after it was slated to expire. At the time, President Biden who faced pressure from progressive Democrats to extend the policy, acknowledged that the extension was unlikely to pass constitutional muster.
In June, the Supreme Court voted 5 - 4 to allow the moratorium to continue up to July 3rd, 2016. Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned at the time that Biden administration needed Congressional approval for further extensions.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki lauded the appeals court's decision in a statement on Friday, adding that the Biden administration believes that the new moratorium of the CDC is a proper use of its lawful authority to protect public health.
Throughout the pandemic, national, state and local eviction moratoria have kept people housed and stopped the spread of COVID - 19 Psaki said. The current CDC moratorium runs until Oct. 3 and applies to counties with substantial and high levels of virus transmissions. The ban on eviction was first introduced in Sept. 2020.