On August 26, 2021, the Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion blocking the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) August 3, 2021 order (“New Order”), a last-ditch effort by the Biden administration to extend the CDC’s now-expired nationwide eviction moratorium (“Previous Moratorium”) on residential evictions (Alabama Ass’n of Realtors, et al. v. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, et al., Case No. 21A23, 594 U.S. ____ (2021)). The Alabama Association of Realtors, a trade group of landlords and property owners, once again asked the Court to vacate a stay that District Judge Dabney Friedrich first ordered on May 6, 2021. As discussed in our July 1, 2021 client alert, that stay set aside Judge Friedrich’s own decision to block the Previous Moratorium based on her finding that the CDC had exceeded its authority under the Public Health Services Act, 42 U.S.C. § 264(a) (the “Act”). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the stay in early June, and the Supreme Court narrowly agreed to do the same shortly thereafter, keeping the Previous Moratorium in place until its expiration on July 31, 2021 (Alabama Ass’n of Realtors, et al.  v. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, et al., 594 U.S. ____ (2021)). When the CDC effectively replaced the Previous Moratorium with its New Order, the Alabama Association  plaintiffs renewed their efforts to vacate Judge Friedrich’s stay – which efforts were again rejected by each of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the D.C. Circuit. (2021 WL 3577367, *6 (Aug. 13, 2021); 2021 WL 3721431 (Aug. 20, 2021).)

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