U.S. Supreme Court strikes down CDC eviction moratorium, and undermines local moratoriums in the process

The big legal news yesterday was a 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that dissolved the CDC’s most recent version of a moratorium on evictions during the COVID-19 emergency. That in itself was not surprising, as the Court had signaled earlier in the summer that it was heading in that direction.  But buried in its ruling are two paragraphs that quietly undermine state and local moratoriums as well, including those in effect in Washington and Seattle.

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U.S. Supreme Court moves the goalposts on property takings, and there may be local repercussions for renters and landlords

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on a case involving a California regulation that granted union representatives access to private employers’ work sites for up to 3 hours a day, 120 days per year, in order to recruit and organize. The Court ruled that the government-granted access is a “taking” of property, and thus was subject to the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In clarifying the rules around a grey area of property rights jurisprudence — and arguably moving the goalposts in favor of property owners — the Court may have also shifted the balance of …

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