TIGER LILY v HUD: Sixth Circuit Rejects Eviction Moratorium
Snip…
JOHN K. BUSH, Circuit Judge. Ten months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed an eviction moratorium on rental properties across the country. It found authority for its unprecedented action in a provision of the Public Health Service Act of 1944. Plaintiffs sued, arguing that the provision does not grant the CDC the sweeping authority it claims. The district court found in their favor and granted them declaratory relief. We affirm…
Finally, to put “extra icing on a cake already frosted,” the government’s interpretation of § 264(a) could raise a nondelegation problem. Van Buren v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 1648, 1661 (2021) (quoting Yates v. United States, 574 U.S. 528, 557 (2015) (Kagan, J., dissenting)). Under that interpretation, the CDC can do anything it can conceive of to prevent the spread of disease. That reading would grant the CDC director near-dictatorial power for the duration of the pandemic, with authority to shut down entire industries as freely as she could ban evictions. See Florida v. Becerra, No. 821-839-SDM-AAS, 2021 WL 2514138, *29–31 (M.D. Fla. June 18, 2021) (discussing the possible actions the government could take under its interpretation). In applying the nondelegation doctrine, the “degree of agency discretion that is acceptable varies according to the scope of the power congressionally conferred.” Am. Trucking, 531 U.S. at 475. Such unfettered power would likely require greater guidance than “such regulations as in his judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases.” See Indus. Union Dep’t, AFL-CIO v. Am. Petroleum Inst., 448 U.S. 607, 645–46 (1980) (plurality opinion) (“[I]t is unreasonable to assume that Congress intended to give the Secretary the unprecedented power over American industry that would result from the Government’s view . . . . A construction of the statute that avoids this kind of open-ended grant should certainly be favored.”)…
For those reasons, we conclude that 42 U.S.C. § 264(a) does not authorize the CDC to implement a nationwide eviction moratorium.3 We therefore affirm.
Full Opinion below…
No Comment