A trade organization that represents Louisiana landlords is suing the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arguing the agency has exceeded its authority by imposing a nationwide eviction ban during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Apartment Association of Louisiana, which represents companies that own 118,000 rental units in the state, and Chambless Enterprises, a firm that owns and manages rental properties in Louisiana, brought the lawsuit in the federal court in the Western District of Louisiana. In September, the CDC rolled out the moratorium on evictions for certain tenants that will be in place through the end of the year.
“Ultimately, this is about the fact that the CDC needs to be kept in line, that they cannot just assert an overarching power to do anything they think is necessary to respond to COVID-19,” Luke Wake, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney who filed the lawsuit, told the Louisiana Record.
Attorney Luke Wake
Federal regulations allow the agency to take some actions to stop disease outbreaks across state lines, according to the complaint filed on Nov. 12. These actions include fumigation, disinfection and sanitation but not the imposition of a countrywide ban on evictions, the lawsuit states.
The moratorium represents an administrative overreach that loads a disproportionate share of the pandemic’s social costs onto the backs of landlords, according to the complaint.
“If the federal government possesses the legitimate power to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium, that power must be exercised by Congress,” the lawsuit says. “Until Congress acts, the executive branch may not.”
Congress did put in place a temporary eviction ban in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, but that moratorium has expired.
“If the CDC actually wins this case, if they’re successful in arguing that they have the statutory authority to do a national eviction moratorium, then they will have succeeded in convincing the court that they have extremely broad powers under the governing statutes,” Wake said. He added that other legal challenges to the CDC’s order are in play in other states, including Georgia and Ohio.
Many landlords are simply people who own a house that they rent out in order to secure essential revenue for their retirements, Wake said, indicating that the moratorium has resulted in real financial losses.
“Landlords are suffering injury because they have an ongoing obligation to continue paying their mortgage and continue upkeep of these properties,” he said. And now many of them lack the rental income to stay afloat, according to Wake.