President Joe Biden’s Justice Department is reviewing a decision from a federal judge vacating the federal ban on evictions and may submit an appeal, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced Wednesday.
Biden inherited and extended the emergency eviction moratorium from former President Donald Trump. Both presidents have argued that renters deserve stringent protections from eviction amid the coronavirus pandemic. Landlords say they pay a steep price for lapsed payments.
“The Department of Justice is reviewing the decision and should have something to say later today,” Psaki told reporters, saying the moratorium had proved effective in cutting down on evictions under both Trump and Biden. (RELATED: CDC Extends Trump Admin’s Coronavirus Eviction Moratorium, Despite 2 Judges Ruling It Unconstitutional)
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – DECEMBER 11: Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) delivers remarks after being introduced as U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs at the Queen Theater on December 11, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
D.C. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled Wednesday morning that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overstepped its authority when it issued the emergency ban on evictions.
“The pandemic has triggered difficult policy decisions that have had enormous real-world consequences. The nationwide eviction moratorium is one such decision,” Friedrich wrote in the opinion. “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.”
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge also reacted to the ruling at a Wednesday press conference, saying the Biden administration is already taking steps to protect renters under threat of eviction.
“We know we have put enough money in the system through the rescue plan that people should come out of this June 30th, at least currently, and so that in itself is going to allow us hopefully to keep people in their homes, as well as those people who actually have homes through FHA or through the federal government,” she said.