Circuit Judge John K. Bush accuses the federal government of laying claim to “near-dictatorial powers.”
by Christian Britschgi
Reason.com
The government’s eviction moratorium expires at the end of this week. A federal appeals court in Tennessee just gave it one final kick on the way out the door.
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Sixth Circuit unanimously ruled that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exceeded the authority given to it by Congress when it issued a near-comprehensive ban on evictions for non-payment in September of last year.
The CDC justified that unprecedented policy—which applied to anyone making under $99,000 (or couples making under $198,000) who signed a financial hardship declaration—by pointing to the 1944 Public Health Service Act. That law gives federal health officials the power to “make and enforce such regulations” that are “necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases.”