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Homeowners and real estate companies are suing the Biden administration in an attempt to end a new moratorium on evictions, which was extended through the CDC after the Supreme Court ruled the decision was up to Congress.
The Alabama and Georgia Association of Realtors filed a federal lawsuit in Washington DC on Wednesday evening asking for the resumption of evictions after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the temporary ban had been reinstated.
The group of homeowners and real estate agents argue in the lawsuit that the new moratorium, which is to last until Oct. 3, is beyond the powers of the CDC and puts housing providers at risk.
About half of housing providers are “family operators,” the National Association of Realtors said in a statement.
“Without rental income, they cannot pay their own bills or maintain their properties,” the group said.
State associations unsuccessfully filed a similar lawsuit last year that also challenged the CDC’s authority to impose a blanket ban on evictions.
If this new legal challenge is successful, an estimated 3.6 million Americans are at risk of being evicted from their homes.
The latest lawsuit adds to the already ongoing legal saga that erupted earlier this year when U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich discovered that the CDC had exceeded its powers with the initial moratorium.
In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the moratorium to remain in place until the end of July.
In a brief concurring opinion, Kavanaugh wrote that although he believed the CDC had overstepped its bounds by extending the moratorium, “[b]Because the CDC plans to end the moratorium in just a few weeks … and because those few weeks will allow for an additional and more orderly distribution of the rent assistance funds allocated by Congress, I am voting at this point to deny the request.
Kavanaugh added that extending the moratorium beyond July 31 would require “clear and specific” legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Biden.
The Biden administration allowed the previous moratorium to expire last weekend after initially saying the Supreme Court ruling precluded an executive extension.
They changed course, however, after facing pressure and criticism from progressives that it allowed vulnerable tenants to lose their homes during a pandemic.
Some legal experts have already questioned the validity of the new moratorium in court.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted on Wednesday that Biden, who has a law degree, would not have supported the moratorium if he was not comfortable with the statute legal or approach.
“This is a narrow and targeted moratorium that is different from the national moratorium. It’s not an extension of that, ”Psaki said.
The new ordinance only protects tenants in parts of the country where transmission of COVID-19 is significant, although in practice it covers areas where 90% of the US population lives.
Evictions can resume once there is a sustained reduction in new infections.
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