Supreme Court decides NOT to lift CDC eviction moratorium

[Shiva Bhaskar]

Attorney here. I saw a post which stated that the moratorium was being lifted, through a Supreme Court ruling. This is not correct. 

The request by a group of Alabama realtors was denied. Brett Kavanugh, John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer voted to uphold the CDC moratorium, which is till July 31. It appears in part that Kavanaugh agreed to this since the moratorium is ending soon. You can read more at Scotus Blog, which is a useful source for analysis of Supreme Court rulings: https://www.scotusblog.com/202...

Based on Kavanaugh's comments, Congress would have to pass legislation to authorize the CDC to continue the moratorium after July 31. If that does not happen, the moratorium would be unconstitutional if extended. My suspicion is that Congress won't pass such legislation, so the moratorium will expire on July 31.

Some states (like California) have extended their moratorium further. It seems that the courts will take a skeptical view towards further extension of these moratoriums, especially if done indefinitely, and without proper compensation for property owners. Something for landlords to keep an eye on.