Following months of warnings, the Supreme Court struck down the eviction moratorium instituted by President Joe Biden in early August.

The temporary measure was an extension of earlier legislation approved under the Trump administration that called for an end to evictions nationwide. The measure was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), following studies that showed homeless Americans tended to be far more vulnerable to carrying coronavirus.

From the outset, the question of constitutionality plagued the moratorium, as its opponents observed that it forbade private property owners from forcing people who did not pay rent to leave their homes. The Supreme Court’s objection to the measure stemmed in part from its lack of popular buy-in, as the moratorium was mandated by the CDC without Congressional approval.

“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue,” the court explained in its opinion, “Congress must specifically authorize it.”

The federal eviction moratorium provided assistance for roughly 3.5 million Americans facing imminent eviction after the end of the moratorium, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The opinion was unsigned, but unanimous among the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh. This is the second defeat the six conservative justices have delivered to Biden in the past month; earlier this week, they pushed back against Biden’s attempt to reform the “Stay in Mexico” policy, which forces U.S. asylum applicants from Mexico and Central America to remain there until their cases are approved.

Conversely, the three liberal justices, Steven Breyer, Elana Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented. In his dissent, Breyer explained that the public health crisis brought about by the Delta variant meant that there was a compelling public interest in continuing the moratorium. 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration was “disappointed” by the decision, but pushed other local authorities to prevent evictions on their own authority. Some states, including California and Maryland, have temporarily banned evictions during the height of the Delta variant.

Biden had earlier hinted that the temporary moratorium could be struck down. However, during its time in existence, the federal government was able to distribute $46.5 billion in renters’ assistance to struggling renters, a program that Congress had approved.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters