Today, the United States District Court for the Eastern District Court of Texas entered final judgment declaring the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium order unconstitutional.
“Today, the court held that the federal government cannot interfere with private property rights or citizen’s access to the courts to exercise their rights under state law,” said TPPF’s General Counsel Robert Henneke. “The CDC attempted to use COVID-19 as an opportunity to grab power and the court rightfully corrected this egregious overreach. This case puts down a marker. There are real, meaningful, limits to federal power under our Constitution. And pandemic or not, federal courts have a “virtually unflagging obligation” to impose those limits in cases brought before them.”
Texas Public Policy Foundation and Southeastern Legal Foundation jointly represented a coalition of residential landlords and property managers.
Mrs. Lauren Terkel, the lead plaintiff, inherited a modest four-plex rental house in Tyler, Texas, but was denied her legal rights under Texas state law to evict a non-paying tenant because of the CDC Order.
Read her story here: https://www.texaspolicy.com/laurens-story/
To read the opinion and order in full, please visit: https://www.texaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/045-Opinion-and-Order.pdf