Judge rules federal eviction moratorium unconstitutional

 Washington Examiner:

A federal judge in Texas ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's temporary moratorium on evictions is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge John Barker said on Thursday that he expects the CDC to respect his ruling and withdraw its moratorium but stopped short of issuing a preliminary injunction.

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"Although the COVID-19 pandemic persists, so does the Constitution," Barker wrote in a 21-page ruling, which came after a group of landlords and property managers sued the CDC in October.

The plaintiffs believed the agency was exercising authority the federal government did not have, using the pandemic as a shield. They were represented by two conservative legal groups, including the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Southeastern Legal Foundation.

"The CDC attempted to use COVID-19 as an opportunity to grab power and the court rightfully corrected this egregious overreach," Robert Henneke, general counsel for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told CNN.

Barker, appointed by former President Donald Trump to the court in the Eastern District of Texas, also ruled that Congress has no authority to grant the CDC the power to halt evictions nationwide, saying the moratorium undermines the rights of landlords under state law.

The CDC issued the moratorium to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus by keeping people in their homes during the pandemic.

...

While the story does not provide the constitutional provision in question, I suspect it is the clause that prevents the taking of someone's property without due process of law.  That would likely require a judicial hearing for each separate property where eviction might be happening.

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