When Vice President Al Gore was caught soliciting campaign donations from the White House, he excused himself by repeating one of the slipperiest phrases in the dictionary of political dodges. There was, he intoned seven times in an excruciating 1997 press conference, “no controlling legal authority” to confirm that his money grubbing was illegal. His logic, if you can call it that, was that since no court decision could be cited — no one had ever had the gall to dispute the matter before a judge — it was impossible to be sure he’d done wrong.

The problem for President Joe Biden and his lawless administration today is that their ban on landlords kicking out tenants who don’t pay their rent is proscribed by a very clear controlling legal authority. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the eviction moratorium put in place by former President Donald Trump as part of the nation’s emergency pandemic response would be unconstitutional without new legislation from Congress.