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SCOTUS Blocks the Biden Administrations Ban on Evictions

Millions of Tenants Affected

NPR: August 26, 2021

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration's order extending the federal eviction moratorium to a large swath of the country, in a decision expected by both legal scholars and the White House.

The ban on evictions, a two-month order, was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The pause covers parts of the United States that are experiencing what the CDC calls "substantial" and "high" spread of the coronavirus.

The unsigned decision from the court was 6-3, with the court's three liberal justices dissenting.

The court's majority said the CDC exceeded its authority with the temporary ban.

The majority opinion says that the CDC for its order relied on "a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination."

"It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts," the majority writes, adding: "If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it."

Learn more at https://www.npr.org/2021/08/26/1024668578/court-blocks-biden-cdc-evictions-moratorium