It’s official. The Supreme Court struck down Biden’s eviction moratorium.
The Court ruled the moratorium can only be extended by Congress taking action.
Congress failed to take action and it turns out that King Biden can’t simply decree laws on his own.
Biden is disappointed, according to a statement from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Psaki said, “The Biden administration is disappointed that the Supreme Court has blocked the most recent CDC eviction moratorium while confirmed cases of the delta variant are significant across the country.”
The ruling states, “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”
The moratorium Biden imposed was meant to protect renters negatively affected by the coronavirus from being evicted.
However, it also forced owners to keep tenants on their private property. This moratroium has received widespread backlash.
Three liberal justices on the court sided by Biden, presumably due to their personal political basis.
Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer dissented on the ruling. They agree with forcing owners to keep tenants who are renting property, even if they do not pay rent.
There are reportedly more than 15 million people living in households that owe as much as $20 billion in back rent, according to the Aspen Institute.
Both large and small property owners are furious about the moratoriums, which they consider illegal.
BREAKING 6-3 #SCOTUS strikes down latest Biden administration eviction ban. Justice Breyer dissents, joined by Justices Kagan and Sotomayor.
Court:
“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) August 27, 2021
Psaki added, “As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.”
“In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continued risk of COVID-19 transmission, President Biden is once again calling on all entities that can prevent evictions – from cities and states to local courts, landlords, Cabinet agencies – to urgently act to prevent evictions.”
The majority says that the CDC, in barring evictions, 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.”
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) August 27, 2021
More from Fox News:
It was the second loss for the administration this week at the hands of the high court’s conservative majority. On Tuesday, the court effectively allowed the reinstatement of a Trump-era policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings. The new administration had tried to end the Remain in Mexico program, as it is informally known.
On evictions, President Joe Biden acknowledged the legal headwinds the new moratorium would likely encounter. But Biden said that even with doubts about what courts would do, it was worth a try because it would buy at least a few weeks of time for the distribution of more of the $46.5 billion in rental assistance Congress had approved.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the pace of distribution has increased and nearly a million households have been helped. But only about 11% of the money, just over $5 billion, has been distributed by state and local governments, the department said.
The administration at first allowed the earlier moratorium to lapse July 31, saying it had no legal authority to allow it to continue. But the CDC issued a new moratorium days later as pressure mounted from lawmakers and others to help vulnerable renters stay in their homes as the coronavirus’ delta variant surged. The moratorium had been scheduled to expire Oct. 3.
Landlords in Alabama and Georgia who challenged the earlier evictions ban quickly returned to court, where they received a sympathetic hearing. U.S. Judge Dabney Friedrich, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the new moratorium was beyond the CDC’s authority.
