The Supreme Court today blocked the Biden administration’s lawless moratorium on evictions. You can read the opinion and dissent here.
Even if one believes that the moratorium constitutes good public policy, it seems beyond dispute that the executive branch lacks the power to mandate it. As the majority of Justices said in their unsigned opinion, “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”
Biden himself recognized the truth of this statement. After the Supreme Court misguidedly allowed the moratorium to remain in effect for 30 days, Biden initially concluded that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lacked the power to extend it further.
However, when left-wing congressional Democrats balked, Biden knuckled under. He stated, however, that the legal scholars he consulted believed that extending the moratorium without congressional approval was probably not constitutional, and he offered no argument to the contrary. Even liberal organs like the Washington Post agreed that the moratorium is “almost certainly illegal.”
In effect, Biden ignored his duty to defend the Constitution and left it to the Supreme Court to clean up after him. Now, the Court has done so.
The Court’s three liberals dissented from the cleanup. Justice Breyer wrote the dissent.
His understanding of the Constitution, specifically the powers of the executive, seems inferior to Joe Biden’s. That’s saying something.
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