The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration's Covid eviction moratorium.
"Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium's expiration," the court wrote in an unsigned, eight-page opinion. "If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it."
The latest litigation was prompted by the moratorium by the CDC after the last moratorium had expired.
Landlords challenging the eviction ban accused the Biden administration of "gamesmanship" for reviving the moratorium. The court pointed to the "decades-old statute" the CDC was relying on to defend the moratorium and the court said that it "strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts."
Justice Stephen Breyer blasted the court's decision by noting the change in circumstances since the court last acted at the end of June.
"COVID-19 transmission rates have spiked in recent weeks, reaching levels that the CDC puts as high as last winter: 150,000 new cases per day," he wrote. The two other liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, joined Breyer's dissent.
The White House said it was "disappointed" in the ruling
"The Biden administration is disappointed that the Supreme Court has blocked the most recent CDC eviction moratorium while confirmed cases of the Delta variant are significant across the country," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19."
The Delta variant of the coronavirus had propelled a new surge of cases in recent weeks, justifying the new extension.
"The trajectory of the pandemic has since changed -- unexpectedly, dramatically, and for the worse. As of August 19, 2021, the seven-day average of daily new cases is 130,926, nearly a ten-fold increase over the rate when this Court ruled" Biden said.
More than 15 million people live in households that owe as much as $20 billion to their landlords and roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. face eviction in the next two months.
“The process works like this: once an eviction order is signed by a judge, BSO receives a writ of possession,” Codd said. “BSO’s civil process servers post that writ at the home, and the tenant or tenants being evicted are given 24 hours to leave the residence. Once that 24 hour window passes, deputies conduct the final eviction and ensure that those being evicted leave the residence.”
Deputies will post a notice on the property after the final eviction is carried out, showing that the process is complete and that the tenant is no longer allowed on the property.
Rental assistance may be available through the county as it received about $53 million in funding from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
To learn more about the program, call 888-692-7203.