General Counsel for Small Business Owners

12/12/2021

https://mailchi.mp/a3016f7abf69/therano

Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 as a 19-year-old Stanford dropout.  She raised $945 million from investors and was crowned the world’s youngest billionaire. Therano dissolved in 2018, following several civil and criminal federal investigation. The company settled with the SEC and Ms. Ho...

11/16/2021

08/30/2021

“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.”

ALABAMA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS, ET AL. v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION TO VACATE STAY
[August 26, 2021]

The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions of any tenants who live in a county that is experiencing substantial or high levels of COVID–19 transmission and who make certain declarations of financial need. 86 Fed. Reg. 43244 (2021). The Alabama Association of Realtors (along with other plaintiffs) obtained a judgment from the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacating the moratorium on the ground that it is unlawful. But the District Court stayed its judgment while the Government pursued an appeal. We vacate that stay, render- ing the judgment enforceable. The District Court produced a comprehensive opinion concluding that the statute on which the CDC relies does not grant it the authority it claims. The case has been thoroughly briefed before us— twice. And careful review of that record makes clear that the applicants are virtually certain to succeed on the merits of their argument that the CDC has exceeded its authority. It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken. But that has not happened. Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old stat- ute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe
that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.

….

It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the COVID–19 Delta variant. But our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends. Cf. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U. S. 579, 582, 585–586 (1952) (conclud- ing that even the Government’s belief that its action “was necessary to avert a national catastrophe” could not over- come a lack of congressional authorization). It is up to Con- gress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.
***
If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it. The application to vacate stay presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him referred to the Court is granted.

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