Stating that the federal charter of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not grant the agency the ability to implement a nationwide eviction moratorium, a federal judge in the DC District Court vacated the CDC’s temporary ban on evictions.

Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, stated that the national eviction moratorium was beyond the power of the CDC, which is tasked with addressing disease spread.  The ruling comes in a suit brought by the Alabama Association of Realtors against the Department of Health and Human Services, the Cabinet department that oversees the CDC.

The current eviction moratorium, slated to end June 30th, prevents landlords from proceeding with eviction judgements against renters who are late in paying their rents.  As of January 2021, more than 18% of renters, or 10 million people, are at least one month late in their rental payments or had previously missed a payment. 

“The Court recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious public health crisis that has presented unprecedented challenges for public health officials and the nation as a whole.The pandemic has triggered difficult policy decisions that have had enormous real-world consequences,” Friedrich’s decision states.  “The nationwide eviction moratorium is one such decision.  It is the role of the political branches, and not the courts, to assess the merits of policy measures designed to combat the spread of disease,even during a global pandemic.  The question for the Court is a narrow one:  Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium?  It does not.”