Judge temporarily stays ruling in eviction moratorium case

US Justice Department argues evictions risk spreading COVID-19, as the federal ban on most evictions remains in place for now.

A federal judge has temporarily stayed an order that found the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exceeded its authority when it imposed a federal eviction moratorium to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The stay, issued late on Wednesday by a federal judge in Washington, DC, came after the Justice Department filed an emergency appeal in the case. The administrative stay means there will be no immediate effect on the ban, which was extended in March to go through the end of June. “Scientific evidence shows that evictions exacerbate the spread of COVID-19, which has already killed more than half a million Americans, and the harm to the public that would result from unchecked evictions cannot be undone,” Brian Boynton, acting assistant attorney general, said in a statement.