A federal judge on Friday declined a request from landlords to block the Biden administration’s recently instituted moratorium pausing evictions during the coronavirus pandemic until Oct. 3.
Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., denied the plaintiffs’ motion to vacate a stay she had put on her own order in May that blocked a previous iteration of the eviction moratorium. She also declined to rule relative to a judgment Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed in June that Congress would have to authorize any future moratorium.
The decision was the latest move in an extensive legal battle that landlords have waged against the federal government, one in which Friedrich has played a pivotal role, with landlords firmly insisting the government lacks the authority to impose a pause on evictions.
SUPREME COURT PARTIALLY LIFTS NEW YORK’S EVICTION MORATORIUM
Friedrich vacated the first nationwide pandemic moratorium, initially imposed during the Trump administration and reinforced by an act of Congress and by the Biden administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on May 5.
She subsequently agreed to pause the enforcement of her own ruling after the Justice Department moved to appeal her decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The D.C. Circuit later upheld Friedrich’s stay, and a Supreme Court ruling on June 29 allowed the moratorium, which had been set to expire on July 31, to remain in place.
However, although he concurred with four other justices to leave the moratorium in place, Kavanaugh wrote that he agreed with the landlords that the CDC exceeded its authority in ordering the eviction pause.
“In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31,” Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, wrote in his concurrence.
The Biden administration repeatedly signaled that it would not seek to reimpose the moratorium after its expiration, with some officials asserting that the administration lacked the authority, considering Kavanaugh’s concurrence.
But the Biden administration announced another moratorium, albeit one “targeted” at COVID-19 hot spots, days after the previous order’s expiration following significant pressure from congressional Democrats, causing landlords to take the matter back to court.
Friedrich ruled Friday that the “law of the case” judicial doctrine, determined by the D.C. Circuit’s decision to uphold her stay on the previous moratorium, prevented her from lifting the stay because the Supreme Court did not block the moratorium in June.
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“Because the D.C. Circuit’s judgment affirming the stay binds this Court and the Supreme Court did not overrule that judgment, the Court will deny the plaintiffs’ motion,” Friedrich wrote.
“It is true that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in this case strongly suggests that the CDC is unlikely to succeed on the merits,” Friedrich said. “But the [District] Court’s hands are tied. The Supreme Court did not issue a controlling opinion in this case, and circuit precedent provides that the votes of dissenting Justices may not be combined with that of a concurring Justice to create binding law.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the lead plaintiff, the Alabama Association of Realtors, for comment.
