Doubts Surround Legality of New Temporary Eviction Ban

Rochelle P. Walensky has asserted power she does not have…what are you going to do about it? What is anyone going to do about it? Property owners affected by this can simply proceed with evictions, I would assume? The CDC has no authority in the matter from a legal perspective. Evictions are a legal matter……problem solved, right?

President Joe Biden may have averted a flood of evictions and solved a growing political problem when his administration reinstated a temporary ban on evictions because of the COVID-19 crisis. But he left his lawyers with legal arguments that even he acknowledges might not stand up in court.

The new eviction moratorium announced Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could run into opposition at the Supreme Court, where one justice in late June warned the administration not to act further without explicit congressional approval.

The administration is counting on differences between the new order, scheduled to last until Oct. 3, and the eviction pause that lapsed over the weekend to bolster its legal case. At the very least, as Biden himself said, the new moratorium will buy some time to protect the estimated 3.6 million Americans who could face eviction from their homes.