The Supreme Court has struck down the moratorium on evictions that the Biden administration put in place a few weeks ago.
In a divided ruling neatly split along party lines, the conservative-majority court lifted the eviction moratorium on the grounds that it did not come into being through legislative action, Bloomberg reports. The six rightwing justices also took issue with the federal law invoked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to impose the moratorium, which, like its predecessors, was intended to address the economic recession and mass layoffs produced by the coronavirus pandemic as well as to curb the spread of covid-19 itself.
“Congress was on notice that a further extension [of the previous eviction moratorium, which expired on July 31,] would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” reads the Supreme Court’s unsigned eight-page opinion, per CNN. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”
Stephen Breyer dissented alongside fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. “The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates,” he wrote, per Bloomberg. “That figure is the highest it has been since at least last winter.”
I can’t even think of a snappy, voicey, bloggy thing to say here. The cruelty knows no bounds! Imagine there’s a stunning transition sentence here, as you read on for more covid-related news for the day.
- Oregon’s seen a wild series of outbreaks over the last two months, which has prompted a 990 percent increase in hospitalizations in the state in that timeframe. In response, Gov. Kate Brown has imposed some covid-related mandates requiring everyone, vaccinated or not, to wear masks when gathering together in public, even if they’re outdoors. [The New York Times]
- Covid cases are still on the rise in the United States, but—stick with me here—the pace at which they’re raising is dropping. Hospitalizations are also dropping nationwide, and by “dropping” I mean “still rising but the rate at which they’re rising is dropping.” [CNBC]
- 62.8 percent of American adults have been fully vaccinated, while 73.5 percent of people in the U.S. over 18 have received at least one shot. Broadening the scope to the general population, 51.9 percent of Americans of any age have been fully vaccinated at press time. [CDC]
