Ruling that if a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, the Congress must specifically authorize it, the US Supreme Court blocked on Thursday the moratorium President Biden imposed to protect renters affected by the coronavirus, Fox News reports.
According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, the latest decision puts between 6 and 17 million American tenants at risk of eviction with another 3.6 million saying they would lose their place to live within two months.
After allowing in June the previously imposed federal eviction moratorium to remain in effect until July 31, when it was set to expire, Biden administration have put in place the latest eviction moratorium via the Centers for Disease Control on August 3.
Though this time it’s only covering counties with a high rate of Covid-19, the court noted it has far-reaching effects with around 80% of the country falling under its purview.
According to the nation’s highest court’s ruling, CDC far overstepped its authority by imposing it, accepting the realtor association’s appeal to enforce a lower court decision that CDC has no authority to impose a wide-ranging eviction moratorium.
He Court says it would’ve been different if Congress had specifically authorized CDC to take the action that it has taken but that has not happened and the Court has no intention of giving the agency the amount of authority that ‘would far exceed the language of the statute’.
Yet, the ruling signals that any further extension should be greenlit by Congress though its last efforts prompted by House Democrats to do that failed prompting backlash from ordinary citizens.
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