WASHINGTON — Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium could be continued to be enforced, even with some doubt on its legality.
The moratorium, which prohibits landlords from evicting low-income tenants who ‘cannot’ afford their rent could be enforced since a Supreme Court majority technically ruled it was constitutional according to D.C. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich Friday.
A previous version of the moratorium was declared legal by a Supreme Court majority, which also stated that Congress would need to approve future moratoria.
“The Court’s hands are tied,” Friedrich wrote in her decision. “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.”
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for a 5-4 majority, said in June that the eviction moratorium could stay in place. While he admitted the federal government couldn’t extend it by simple means, Friedrich said it was unclear which justices on the court agreed with his view and therefore she was unable to strike the moratorium down.
According to a recent U.S. Census Bureau survey, Friedrich’s ruling protects more than 12 million Americans who said they had little to no confidence in being able to make their next rent payment,
President Joe Biden and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the moratorium until Oct. 3. The new directive was tailored to apply only to regions with “substantial and high levels” of coronavirus transmission-roughly 90 percent of all U.S. counties.
Citing Kavanaugh’s brief, the White House had initially asked Congress to renew the moratorium via legislation. It appears that the suggested bill would never get Senate approval, so the president bowed to pressure to enforce it anyway. Biden told reporters that while he could not guarantee the new moratorium would be upheld in court, he was confident the slow legal process would give Americans additional time to avoid eviction.
Read that again: Because the Senate was not likely to extend the moratorium legally, the left simply ordered the President to bypass the legal procedure (by enforcing it anyway) until such time as the courts moved to stop it.
This is very similar to continuing to eat without paying at a buffet until the cops arrive.
The Alabama and Georgia chapters of the National Association of Realtors, which had previously sued the CDC over the moratorium, asked Friedrich to halt the extension last week based on Kavanaugh’s brief.
The Biden administration argued Kavanaugh’s statement did not hold legal enforcement, as it was not an order or opinion, prior to suggesting that the court should reference an appeals court ruling upholding the original moratorium.
The landlord groups then responded, arguing that the White House itself had acknowledged the precariousness of the new moratorium.
“It is startling that the government is openly acknowledging its manipulation of the judicial process for the purpose of delay,” the groups wrote in their Aug. 6 brief.
Landlords who rent property as a part-time, small operation have lost thousands of dollars, and many have been forced into bankruptcy, according to The Washington Post.
The New York Times reported that at least one unnamed New York City landlord rents rooms in her home reported that tenants spit on her, cursed at her and are delinquent on more than $23,000 in rental payments,
“Around half of all housing providers are mom-and-pop operations, and they also struggle,” NAR spokesperson Patrick Newton told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Without rental income, they cannot pay their own bills or maintain their properties.”
Of course, what doesn’t seem to be getting much mention is the severe CRIMINAL penalties that will hit any landlord if the court decides that the eviction moratorium was violated.
The new 60-day CDC eviction moratorium carries steep criminal penalties for individual landlords who break the law:
– Potential $100k fine and 1 year in jail if eviction doesn't result in death
– Up to $250k fine and 1 year in jail if evicted person dieshttps://t.co/d0KRACRFUy pic.twitter.com/MVnUQDJQGD— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) August 3, 2021
The insanity of allowing someone to live on another’s property without paying being legal, and then arresting and possibly jailing the owner if they decide to kick said person off is mind-boggling.
The National Apartment Association filed a lawsuit to recover damages caused by the eviction moratorium over the course of the pandemic. The organization alleged that U.S. landlords are owed roughly $57 billion in unpaid rent due to the moratorium.
The eviction moratorium was first implemented by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March 2020, providing relief for about 28 percent of the 43.8 million rental units in the U.S. The CDC extended the moratorium multiple times since Sept. 2020 after the original expired without making any special consideration for the folks who ultimately have to fund it.
I have seen this before; drive the small landlords out of business, leave only the big guys, then the tenants have to do what the big guys say.
Or move somewhere else. Once again, reward the parasites and punish the providers. haven’t we seen where this is going to? If you are curious about the free money and care-free lifestyle of your average landlord, check out the beginning of a video series: Tenants from Hell.
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