As expected, the eviction moratorium issued by Joe Biden is heading to the Supreme Court just weeks after he issued it.
A little over two weeks ago, Joe Biden surrendered to far-left members of the Democrat Party and abandoned his responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution by issuing his eviction moratorium immediately after admitting that it was unconstitutional and would likely be rejected by the courts.
“The bulk of the constitutional scholars say it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster,” Biden said during his press conference announcing the new eviction moratorium before adding, “By the time it gets litigated, it will probably give [renters] some additional time.”
Biden’s eviction moratorium was essentially the same as the one previously issued by Donald Trump in September 2020 — the previous threat to the Constitution occupying the White House. Trump’s eviction moratorium was determined to be illegal by the Supreme Court.
Biden originally accepted the Supreme Court’s opinion and the limitations placed on him by the Constitution. In a statement released by Press Secretary Jen Psaki at the time, she admitted that the administration didn’t have the authority to extend the eviction moratorium. “To date, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and her team have been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium,” she said on Monday.
White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator and Senior Advisor to the President Gene Sperling also confirmed at a press briefing attended by Psaki and other administration officials that Biden lacked the authority to issue the eviction moratorium:
“The President has not only kicked the tires; he has double, triple, quadruple checked. He has asked the CDC to look at whether you could even do targeted eviction moratorium—that just went to the counties that have higher rates—and they, as well, have been unable to find the legal authority for even new, targeted eviction moratoriums.” (emphasis mine)
Of course, the use of unconstitutional executive action to do as he pleases is something Joe Biden is very familiar with after having worked for eight years for the man who made governing via “pen and phone” standard operating procedure.
But before you go pointing a finger at those big, bad, evil, and nasty Democrats, let’s also remember that it was Trump who issued the first eviction moratorium as a part of his own pen and phone approach to doing whatever he wanted — Constitution be damned.
But back to Joe Biden.
This past Friday, the Supreme Court accepted an appeal by a group of real estate owners and realtors after a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled to let his eviction moratorium stay in effect (via Politico):
Two chapters of the National Association of Realtors petitioned the high court to immediately block the latest version of the ban. Chief Justice John Roberts gave the government until noon [yesterday] to respond.
The [Trump] eviction ban that preceded the [Biden] moratorium cost landlords billions of dollars a month before it expired July 31. The restrictions were intended to keep tenants housed after they lost income because of the pandemic.
In response to litigation brought by the Realtors against the earlier ban, the Supreme Court signaled that the policy was likely on shaky legal footing. The high court, in a 5-4 decision on June 29, allowed the moratorium to continue until its expiration July 31, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh — the deciding vote on sparing the ban — warned in his concurring opinion that the CDC had gone beyond its legal power and that the ban’s imminent expiration was what motivated him to let it stand temporarily.
In their request for immediate relief from the appeals court, the Realtors cited the remarks made by Biden when he admitted he didn’t have the constitutional authority to issue a new eviction moratorium:
“Given the president’s statement that this extension of the moratorium and any litigation in its defense are meant to buy time to keep an unlawful policy in place for as long as possible, this Court should issue an immediate administrative order vacating the stay while it considers this motion,” lawyers for the landlords and real estate brokers’ group wrote in their motion filed Saturday.
Despite Biden’s admission, the administration asked the Supreme Court yesterday to ignore the Constitution and leave Biden’s eviction moratorium intact due to Delta, Delta, Delta.
In a court filing, lawyers for the government also argued that the court should let Biden’s CDC eviction moratorium remain while the administration appeals a lower court ruling that found the measure unlawful. In other words, Biden is playing a game of legal rope-a-dope to buy time — just as he intended when he issued the order.
“The CDC has the statutory authority to halt evictions to prevent the spread of communicable disease,” lawyers argued, noting that the pandemic has worsened since the last time the justices confronted the eviction freeze.
Joe Biden’s moratorium is supposed to expire on October 3. But when you remember that previous eviction moratoriums have been extended five times and that Joe Biden routinely disregards the Constitution, do you really think it won’t be extended again if the mood strikes?
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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