Federal judge leaves Biden’s evictions moratorium in place

A federal judge on Friday left in place the Biden administration’s moratorium on evictions by landlords, which is expected to run through October.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said her “hands are tied” by an appellate court ruling that sided against the landlords.

A group of landlords from Alabama and Georgia have been challenging the moratorium in court, asking federal judges to block its enforcement.

Judge Friedrich, a Trump appointee, previously ruled the federal government’s ban on evictions was unlawful, but she put her opinion on hold until the appeals process played out. The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided against the landlords, also refusing to block the evictions ban.

Similarly, the Supreme Court declined to get involved earlier this summer.

“Because the D.C. Circuit’s judgment affirming the stay binds this Court and the Supreme Court did not overrule that judgment, the Court will deny the plaintiffs’ motion,” the judge wrote in Friday’s opinion.

A spokesperson for the landlords said they will appeal.

“We now plan to return in short order to the D.C. Circuit Court and then again to the Supreme Court if necessary. We are confident in our position that this unlawful eviction ban will soon come to an end,” the spokesperson said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden wants state and local leaders to distribute more than $46 billion in rental assistance from COVID-19 relief packages passed by Congress last year.

“Throughout the pandemic, preventing evictions and keeping people in their homes has been a proven way of slowing the spread of COVID-19,” she said.

In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to leave the eviction moratorium in place.

But Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said he thought the government had overreached although he voted with the majority leaving the moratorium intact until July 31, the original expiration date of the eviction ban.

In the order, Justice Kavanaugh said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would need congressional authority to extend the moratorium beyond July 31.

He said he did not move to strike down the moratorium immediately because “those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas would have voted to strike down the ban on evictions immediately.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had extended the federal government’s eviction moratorium for another 30 days earlier this year. It was roughly the fourth time the government has implemented an extension.

The Centers for Disease and Prevention, which ordered the moratorium because of the shutdowns prompted by COVID-19, extended its ban past July 31 because of the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The landlords have renewed their court battle to challenge the move. Friday’s decision from Judge Friedrich marks a setback in their fight.

The eviction moratorium prevents landlords from evicting tenants, so they are unable to remove a renter who can’t pay rent.

The moratorium was first issued in September 2020 under former President Trump, but the government has continued to renew it.

Property owners across the country, including struggling mom-and-pop operators, have been asking the nation’s courts why landlords are expected to take a financial hit while non-paying tenants are protected by the moratoriums.