By Christian Britschgi | Reason
In a surprise decision Thursday, a federal court has struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) controversial ban on evictions as unconstitutional.
The federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce “does not include the power to impose the challenged eviction moratorium,” wrote Judge J. Campbell Barker for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in his opinion yesterday. “Although the COVID-19 pandemic persists, so does the Constitution.”
This ruling comes in response to a lawsuit brought by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and the Southeastern Legal Foundation on behalf of several Texas landlords who’ve been prevented from evicting non-paying tenants because of the CDC’s order.
