Supreme Court Says Biden’s Moratorium on Tenant Evictions Unconstitutional

• The Supreme Court has struck down Biden’s moratorium on tenant evictions.
• The court ruled 6-3 that the CDC had no jurisdiction over eviction moratoriums.
• Conservative justices argued that “if a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”

In a stunning 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court has struck down Biden’s moratorium on tenant evictions. 

The court said that the Centers for Disease Control had no authority to issue such a moratorium.  In its opinion, the conservative majority said it “strains credulity to believe” that the statute under which the moratorium was imposed — which allows the CDC to take extreme measures to staunch the spread of COVID-19 — “grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.”

Justice Breyer wrote the dissenting opinion, which was supported by Justices Sotomayer and Kagan. 

In their dissent, the justices argued that an eviction moratorium was actually a more mild measure than imposing a quarantine, which “arguably impose greater restrictions on individuals’ rights and state police powers than do limits on evictions.”