A group representing some of the nation's property owners asked the U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday to block enforcement of an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has stopped landlords from evicting tenants who aren't paying their rent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Keeping that order in place "will prolong the severe financial burdens borne by landlords under the moratorium for the past nine months," the group said, in an emergency application directed to Chief Justice John Roberts filed by the Alabama Association of Realtors.
"Landlords have been losing over $13 billion every month under the moratorium, and the total effect of the CDC's overreach may reach up to $200 billion if it remains in effect for a year." With the pandemic winding down the application said, the need for the eviction ban is fading.
In March, the Biden administration extended the moratorium on housing evictions through the end of this month.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C, ruled in May that the CDC had no power to issue the moratorium on foreclosures. But the judge stayed his order to give the government time to appeal. A federal appeals court declined to lift the stay, leaving the moratorium in place.