The US supreme court decided to block Biden’s administration by allowing the evictions to continue across the country. They are lifting the ban that was put in place by the President due to the pandemic.
The moratorium that was issued at the beginning of the month by the Facilities for disease prevention and control said it had been issued for the areas where “the heightened levels of community transmission to respond to recent, unexpected developments in the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic, including the spike of the Delta variant.”
It was meant “to target specific areas of the country where cases are rapidly increasing, which likely would be exacerbated by mass evictions,” said the CDC.
However, As per the court, the CDC has no power to issue a moratorium as such. On Thursday, the conservative majority in its opinion stated it “strains credulity to believe” that the circumstances under which the ban was imposed – which authorizes the CDC to take drastic measures to staunch the spread of the virus – “grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.”
Moreover, the court argued that “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”
Justice Stephen penned a dissenting opinion which Elena Kagan and Justices Sonia Sotomayer fully supported. According to the dissent, the court officials argued that eviction is a mild step compared to imposing a complete quarantine or lockdown, which “arguably inflicts greater restrictions on the residents’ rights and state police powers than do limits on evictions.”
As per the recent report from Aspen Institute, a nonprofit research group, 6.5 million individuals are behind in house rents across the country.
Biden knew this was coming and acknowledged that it was merely his eviction ban that would be knocked down. However, he asked the residents to buy him some time as he planned to distribute a $46.5 billion rent assistance allowance. Out of the total amount, only $5 billion have been distributed so far – AP reported.
The current moratorium was the extension of the moratorium placed in former President Trump’s administration. It was set to end on 3rd October.
The White House condemned the Supreme Court’s eviction decision and called it “disappointing” and asked the local agencies to “Urgently act” to stop evictions.
Most of the states have already said that they will act according to the current eviction moratorium.
The Governor’s office of California tweeted “This news will NOT impact California renters. The state’s eviction moratorium remains in effect. We’re focused on ensuring tenants and small landlords get the rent relief they need under California’s renter assistance program, the largest in the country,”
Mayor Bill De Blasio pronounced the Supreme Court as “a group of right-wing extremists” and refused to stand with this unjust and vile decision.
