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1 1 (August 30, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveelb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ *Research Service I Supreme Court Blocks Enforcement of the CDC's Eviction Moratorium August 30, 2021 On August 26, 2021, the Supreme Court blocked enforcement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) nationwide temporary eviction moratorium issued on August 3, 2021. In granting the plaintiffs' emergency motion to vacate a lower court's ruling allowing the moratorium to remain in place pending appeal, the Court determined that the plaintiffs were virtually certain to succeed on the merits of their argument that the CDC has exceeded its authority. The Court did not reach a decision on the merits of the underlying case regarding whether the CDC has the legal authority to impose an eviction moratorium, as that case is on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit). The CDC originally imposed a nationwide, temporary federal moratorium on residential evictions for nonpayment of rent on September 4, 2020, shortly after a narrower set of eviction protections established by the CARES Act (@ 4024) expired. The original CDC order had an expiration date of December 31, 2020. Prior to its expiration, Congress extended the order through January 31, 2021, and the CDC administratively extended the order three times: through March 31, June 30, and July 31, 2021. The third extension stated that absent an unexpected change in the trajectory of the pandemic, CDC does not expect to extend the Order further. Citing a surge of cases spurred by the Delta variant, the CDC issued a new order on August 3, 2021 implementing another eviction moratorium through October 3, 2021. The new order was only applicable in counties with heightened rates of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID- 19) community transmission. The CDC orders were intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by preventing homelessness and overcrowded housing conditions resulting from eviction. The CDC issued the moratoriums pursuant to Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA). Section 361, which is codified at 42 U.S.C. @ 264, authorizes the CDC Director to make and enforce such regulations as in his judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the States or possessions, or from one State or possession into any other State or possession. Section 361 also includes a non-exhaustive list of activities that the CDC can take to exercise this authority, as well as an open-ended category of activities. These activities include the apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals, as well as the inspection, fumigation, disinfection, [and] sanitation [of] ... sources of dangerous infection to human Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10638 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress