MONROE – In a defeat for Louisiana landlords, a federal district court judge rejected a request to overturn an eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana found that neither the CDC nor the secretary of Health and Human Services had exceeded their legal authority when the federal government imposed the eviction ban after the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March.
Although Doughty also found that plaintiffs Chambless Enterprises LLC and the Louisiana Apartment Association of Louisiana suffered financial harm as a result of tenants not paying their rents, the government’s obligation to stop the spread of COVID-19 takes precedence, according to the Dec. 22 decision.
Attorney Luke Wake
“It is also clear that this pandemic has adversely affected millions of Americans, as well as much of the nation’s economy,” Doughty wrote. “Plaintiffs have failed to satisfy the standards necessary for obtaining a preliminary injunction as a matter of law.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys had argued that federal statutes limit the CDC’s authority to prevent the interstate spread of a virus to more direct measures, such as disinfection, fumigation and pest extermination at residential buildings. Under the canons of statutory construction – which advise courts on what is meant by the language of the law – the regulations cannot be construed to allow for a nationwide ban on evictions, the plaintiffs argued.
“We will be appealing this decision to the Fifth Circuit of Appeal soon,” Luke Wake, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation who filed the lawsuit, told the Louisiana Record in an email. “The district court decision fails to properly apply the canons of construction. Indeed, in interpreting the statute as providing CDC an open-ended authority to take any action it deems necessary to respond to contagious disease, we are confronted with very serious constitutional issues.”
The district court decision confers excessive authority to the federal agency during a health emergency, according to Wake.
“Unfortunately the district court did not appropriately apply the Supreme Court’s non-delegation doctrine, which holds that Congress cannot write an agency a blank check to simply make up whatever rules it deems proper.”
The eviction moratorium under the CARES Act had been set to expire at the close of 2020, but President Trump’s recent signing of legislation providing additional benefits for those affected by the pandemic will extend that moratorium through Jan. 31.
The moratorium limits eviction protection to those meeting certain income requirements who would likely become homeless without the coverage. The eviction ban also encourages self-isolation of residents at risk to COVID-19 and facilitates stay-at-home orders and social distancing, CDC officials have argued.