Joe Biden's New Eviction Moratorium Faces Legality Doubt Amid Pressure as COVID-19 Delta Variant Cases Spike

Despite legal concerns about acting unilaterally, President Joe Biden's administration imposed a targeted eviction moratorium in places worst impacted by COVID-19 on Tuesday, replacing a countrywide evictions freeze that expired Saturday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s latest eviction embargo, announced Tuesday, might face legal challenges from the Supreme Court, where one justice urged the administration not to proceed further without express legislative permission in late June.

Biden administration's new eviction moratorium

To strengthen its legal ruling, the government counts on discrepancies between the current order, which is set to run until October 3, and the eviction pause that expired over the weekend. At the very least, as Biden himself stated, the new moratorium would buy time for the estimated 3.6 million Americans who are facing eviction.

Some legal experts who doubt the new eviction moratorium will hold up argue that its legal foundations are very similar to the previous one, AP News via Yahoo reported. According to a senior White House source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Biden was warned that a new countrywide moratorium, like the one that recently expired, would most likely be challenged by judges.

Officials created a plan with enough adjustments to make it less vulnerable to judicial challenges, so the administration pushed ahead without Congress' participation. Despite his vocal reservations a day earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed Wednesday that Biden, who has a law degree, would not have backed it if he had been uncomfortable with the legal standing or strategy.

President Joe Biden gave in to the far-left congressional Democrats known as the Squad, reinstating an eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In June, the US Supreme Court decided that the moratorium could not be appropriately prolonged until July 31 without exceeding the CDC's health authority.

Per NY Post, there is no need for a new eviction moratorium as Congress has approved a $47 billion rent relief package with favorable provisions. A family of four in New York City earning up to $95,450 is eligible.

Although there are delays in obtaining the money, any tenant who asks for assistance in California, Massachusetts, New York, and numerous other states are protected from eviction while they wait. This federal rent assistance is in addition to stimulus payments and unemployment benefits with federal add-ons and recently expanded state vouchers for low-income renters in New York.

The new measure aims to help renters hit by Delta variant

The ongoing battle, according to Biden, will probably give some more time for rental assistance funds to flow. The president expressed his expectation that the new targeted measure will reach about 90 percent of renters in the United States. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., commended Democratic Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who had camped on the Capitol steps since Friday to call attention to the issue outside the Capitol Tuesday afternoon.

Bush and fellow progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York staged a little dance party as they welcomed the news. The earlier federal moratorium, enacted during the pandemic to assist Americans who were unable to pay their rent, is credited with keeping almost 2 million renters in their houses. During the pandemic, eleven million Americans have fallen behind on their rent.

After the Democrat-controlled House went for a break last week without taking action on a bill that would have prolonged the moratorium, Biden and Democratic leadership faced a rising backlash from progressive Democrats. It occurred as new worries of a resurgent pandemic were sparked by the emergence of the COVID-19 Delta variant, as per USA Today.