The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., permitted the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium to remain in place on Friday, denying relief to landlords who have sought a court-ordered end to the monthslong pause during the coronavirus pandemic.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to vacate a judicial stay that U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, put on her own decision back in May in order to delay enforcement of her ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its legal authority with the moratorium.
The appellate judges on Friday upheld Friedrich’s stay, which had been ordered with relation to a previous iteration of the eviction moratorium and which she declined to withdraw on Aug. 12.
“In view of that decision and on the record before us, we likewise deny the emergency motion directed to this court,” the judges wrote.
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The Friday ruling brings the petitioning landlords, led by the Alabama Association of Realtors, a step closer to the Supreme Court, where they already failed to secure permanent relief from the government’s earlier moratorium in June. But they have been given signs of hope.
Friedrich vacated the first nationwide pandemic moratorium, initially imposed during the Trump administration and reinforced by an act of Congress and by the Biden administration’s CDC, on May 5.
Friedrich then agreed to pause the enforcement of her own ruling after the Justice Department moved to appeal her decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The D.C. Circuit later upheld Friedrich’s stay, and a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on June 29 allowed the moratorium to remain in place through its expiration on July 31.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with four other justices in leaving the eviction pause in place through July 31 but said he agreed with the landlords that the CDC exceeded its authority in ordering the eviction pause.
“In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31,” Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, wrote in his concurrence.
In light of Kavanaugh’s commentary, the Biden administration signaled that it had no plans to renew the moratorium after it expired but announced another “targeted” moratorium, one aimed at protecting renters in COVID-19 hot spots, days after the previous order’s expiration. The newest moratorium, which followed significant pressure from congressional Democrats for the administration to act, is the source of landlords’ current court fight.
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In denying the landlords’ motion to halt her May stay last Friday, Friedrich said her hands were tied.
“It is true that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in this case strongly suggests that the CDC is unlikely to succeed on the merits,” Friedrich said. “But the [District] Court’s hands are tied. The Supreme Court did not issue a controlling opinion in this case, and circuit precedent provides that the votes of dissenting Justices may not be combined with that of a concurring Justice to create binding law.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Alabama Association of Realtors for comment.
