Supreme Court keeps COVID eviction moratorium in place
The federal ban on evictions will stay in place until July 31.
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
The Supreme Court has a decision about eviction moratoriums.
A federal moratorium on evictions will stay in place until July 31, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. In a 5-4 decision, the court said it would not lift the ban on evictions on behalf of a group of landlords, real estate companies and the like who challenged the authority of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to impose such a ban.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he agreed that the CDC had "exceeded its statutory authority," but given that the end of the moratorium is just a few weeks away, that extra time would "allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds."
Any further extension would require congressional authorization. The moratorium was created in response to the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Among those who filed the suit in November were the Georgia Association of Realtors and the Alabama Association of Realtors.
"The lawsuit highlights the fact that the burden for rent payments has shifted from the tenants to landlords, and that landlords across the nation stand to lose billions collectively if the ban is extended into 2021," the groups said in a statement at the time.