Author Topic: Federal judge in Texas strikes down U.S. COVID-19 eviction moratorium (Read 453 times)

Right_in_Virginia · « **on:** March 17, 2021, 10:51:23 pm »

Federal judge in Texas strikes down U.S. COVID-19 eviction moratorium
Reuters, Mar 17, 2021

A federal judge in Texas on Thursday ruled unconstitutional a national moratorium the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has instituted for most residential evictions to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Siding with a group of landlords and property owners challenging the evictions freeze, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler, Texas, ruled the CDC exceeded its authority under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

â€œThe court concludes that the federal governmentâ€™s Article I power to regulate interstate commerce and enact laws necessary and proper to that end does not include the power to impose the challenged eviction moratorium,â€ Barker wrote.

The judge, appointed to the bench in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump, added: â€œAlthough the COVID-19 pandemic persists, so does the Constitution.â€

Barker said he expected the CDC to abide by his ruling and cease enforcement of the CDCâ€™s moratorium order, imposed in September under the Trump administration and extended on Jan. 21, the day after President Joe Biden took office, to run at least another two months.

More: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-evictions/federal-judge-in-texas-strikes-down-u-s-covid-19-eviction-moratorium-idUSKBN2AQ0E3

PeteS in CA · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2021, 11:11:44 pm »

This may be about the same case, http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,430047.0.html . Why it took Reuters 3 weeks to cover it,

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PeteS in CA · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2021, 05:46:43 pm »

First Appellate Court Ruling on CDC Eviction Moratorium Goes Against the Government

https://reason.com/volokh/2021/03/29/first-appellate-court-ruling-on-cdc-eviction-moratorium-goes-against-the-government/

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Today was a big day for the Centers for Disease Control eviction moratorium! First, the CDC extended the moratorium until June 30 (I wrote about that development here). Then, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued the first appellate court ruling in the litigation over the moratorium's legality. In Tiger Lilly, LLC v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, upheld a trial court decision holding that the moratorium is illegal. The Sixth Circuit's reasoning is similar to that of the trial court in this same case, and that of one of the two previous district court decisions against the moratorium. Here is the key part of the opinion:

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To slow disease transmission, the HHS Secretary, and the CDC by extension, can impose specific restrictions on both property interests, see 42 U.S.C. Â§ 264(a), and liberty interests, see id. Â§ 264(d). As to the former, the Secretary "may provide for such inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destruction of animals or articles found to be so infected or contaminated as to be sources of dangerous infection to human beings, and other measures, as in his judgment may be necessary." Id. Â§ 264(a). The government asserts that a nationwide eviction moratorium is among the "other measures" for disease control that Congress envisioned when drafting the statute.

We disagree. This kind of catchall provision at the end of a list of specific items warrants application of the ejusdem generiscanon, which says that "where general words follow specific words in a statutory enumeration, the general words are construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those objects enumerated by the preceding specific words." ...