Supreme Court Turns Thumbs Down On Biden Eviction Moratorium

The Supreme Court allowed a lower court decision to end the eviction moratorium to go into force in a late unsigned 6-3 decision on Thursday, August 26. Landlords that had been prevented from evicting clients that hadn’t paid rent are now free to begin or continue the eviction process.

Congress initially passed a national temporary moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent on March 27, 2020, which ended on July 24, 2020. The CDC imposed a moratorium on September 4, 2020. Congress extended that moratorium through January 31, 2021. The CDC extended it three more times, ultimately through July 31, 2021. Then, after Congress failed to impose another extension, the Biden administration directed the CDC to add another extension through October 3.

Although the CDC made the new extension more targeted by only having it apply to “US counties experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission,” the high court ruled that the directive rested on a flawed constitutional basis.

In the case Alabama Association of Realtors, et al., v. Department of Health and Human Services, et al., landlords and others in the commercial real estate industry had sued to end the moratorium.