A federal judge on Monday indicated she may challenge the Biden administration's eviction moratorium.
U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich said the Biden administration engaged in legal "gamesmanship" after it imposed a new ban on eviction even after the Supreme Court indicated that such a measure was unlawful.
Biden's New Eviction Moratorium
"Given that this order is almost identical to the CDC's earlier order, as to the effect of it, it's really hard ... to conclude that there's not a degree of gamesmanship going on," Friedrich said, according to Politico.
The new eviction moratorium that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rolled out last week came after President Joe Biden let a previous ban expire at the end of July. Before the ban expired, the White House called on Congress to extend the moratorium, noting that the president did not have the authority to do so.
In a statement, the White House revealed that Biden was willing to support a decision by the CDC to extend the previous eviction moratorium to keep Americans from being kicked out into the streets. However, it argued that the Supreme Court's stance on the issue made it clear that it was going to be impossible, CBS News reported.
The new eviction moratorium will ban landlords from evicting renters living in counties with "substantial and high levels of community transmission levels," which covers approximately 90% of the U.S. The temporary moratorium bars all evictions until Oct. 3.
The White House has also urged state and local governments to use the $46 billion in emergency rental relief funding to help more than 15 million people who are behind on their rental payments. The figure includes more than 7.4 million adults and 6.5 million households, according to a study conducted by Aspen Institute.
Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program
The $46 billion is part of the Congress' Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program. However, states and municipalities have been slow to distribute the relief funding. As of August, only $3 billion, or 6.6%, in ERA funding have been distributed.
"There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic," Biden said in a statement Friday evening, according to Fox Business.
The study also found that, collectively, households owe their landlords at least $20 billion in rent. On a per tenant basis, renters owe their landlords an average of $3,000.
Without the CDC's moratorium, renters who are in debt may face eviction, aggressive debt collection, and civil lawsuits for unpaid rent.
According to the study, 22% of renters in debt to their landlords are Black households, 17% are Latinx and 11% are White. At least 19% of households in debt are also renters with children.
Last week, the U.S. surpassed the 100,000 mark for the number of new COVID-19 infections reported daily. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has reported 35,948,170 coronavirus cases and 617,321 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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