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Justifying the new ban after warning signals from the Supreme Court, government lawyers said in a filing Friday that “the trajectory of the pandemic has changed dramatically due to the highly contagious Delta variant.”
The Justice Department said any financial harm that housing industry groups could face as a result of the ban “is outweighed by the risk of disease and death if the moratorium targets areas of high transmission or substantial is needlessly lifted at this time as new cases are increasing rapidly due to the highly contagious Delta variant. “
The legal row is the latest turning point in the chaotic implementation of the eviction moratorium, which advocates say is critical to preventing millions of Americans from losing their homes during the pandemic. The White House heightened uncertainty this week after officials first said they could find no authority to reactivate the ban, and then President Joe Biden himself warned that the new version would be on a precarious legal basis.
The Justice Department on Friday tried to downplay concerns about the Supreme Court’s likely overturning of the moratorium, noting that the High Court’s 5-4 decision in June left the original moratorium in effect until it expired on Last weekend.
The real estate groups have suspended their case at a concurring opinion from Tory Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the Liberals in leaving the ban in place, but also warned the CDC needed additional legal powers from Congress. Kavanaugh’s opinion also initially dissuaded the White House from extending the deportation ban.
The Justice Department said on Friday that the Supreme Court had not issued a formal ruling on the matter, so it was not fair to assume that the four justices who voted against keeping the ban would side with the Kavanaugh’s side to cancel it.
“Under the DC Circuit precedent… the votes of dissenting judges cannot be combined with the vote of a concurring judge to make a binding decision,” they said. “Until the Supreme Court acts, this Court should follow the DC circuit, not predictions of what the Supreme Court may decide.”
The case is before U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington. She gave homeowners a victory in May when she ruled that the CDC had overstepped its authority by imposing the first ban. Friedrich granted a stay of his own decision while the case is pending on appeal, and the appeals court upheld the stay.
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