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The Supreme Court ended a national moratorium on evictions in parts of the country devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, removing those protections for paying rents and mortgages for millions of Americans who have not been able to pay them, according to The Washington Post .
A coalition of property owners and real estate trading groups in Alabama and Georgia challenged the latest extension of a moratorium on evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued on August 3 and scheduled to end on October 3.
In a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday, the Biden administration said the Delta variant of the coronavirus had driven a new wave of cases in recent weeks , justifying l a new extension of the moratorium on evictions .
“The trajectory of the pandemic has changed since then, unexpectedly, dramatically and for the worse. As of 20 August 2021, the seven-day average of new cases per day is 130, 926, almost a tenfold increase over the rate when this court ruled in June, ”the Biden administration said.
In a 6-3 vote announced Thursday night, the majority of the conservative Supreme Court justices agreed that The prohibition on evictions provided by the CDC moratorium should not be maintained, despite the fact that it was previously upheld by a Court of Appeals.
“It is indisputable that the public has a great interest in combating the spread of COVID – Delta variant 19, ”said the unsigned court opinion. “But our system does not allow agencies to act illegally even in pursuit of desirable ends … It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest deserves further action here.”
The three liberal judges of the Supreme Court disagreed. “The public interest favors strongly respect the CDC judgment at this time, when more than 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates, ”wrote Judge Stephen G. Breyer, along with Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
A judge District courts in Washington, DC, and several other courts across the country, said the powers granted to the CDC to protect public health during a pandemic did not include the prohibition of evictions for those who are behind in their payments.
Despite the objections of the four most consensual judges rvadores of the court , the Supreme Court left an earlier version of the eviction ban in June, when it was supposed to expire at the end of July.
But Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, who cast the deciding vote on that decision, also said he believed any extension of the ban would require explicit action by Congress.