WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal judge on Wednesday threw out the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide moratorium on evictions, delivering a setback to Americans hit hard financially by the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said the “plain language” of a federal law called the Public Health Service Act, which governs the response to the spread of communicable diseases such as COVID-19, blocked the CDC from imposing a moratorium. The moratorium had been due to lapse on June 30.
Friedrich acknowledged that “the pandemic has triggered difficult policy decisions” such as the moratorium that have had “enormous real-world consequences.”
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The moratorium covered renters who expected to earn less than $99,000 a year, or $198,000 for joint filers, or who reported no income, or received stimulus checks.
Renters had to file sworn declarations saying eviction would leave them homeless or force them into a “shared living setting” and attest they have done all they can to get government assistance for rent or housing.
The moratorium was issued last September, during former President Donald Trump’s administration, and had been extended three times, most recently in March under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Many U.S. states have imposed their own moratoriums on home and business evictions.
The CDC moratorium had been challenged by landlords and real estate trade groups, who said the agency lacked the power to impose it and that it unlawfully took away their right to deal with delinquent tenants.
According to the White House, one in five renters had fallen behind on rent as of January, while the CDC has said more than 4 million adults who are behind feared imminent eviction.
(Reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
