 |
| Caleb Kruckenberg |
Tiger Lily, LLC, et al. v. United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development, et al.
Washington,
DC – On July 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit affirmed the
March 2021 decision of
the Western District of Tennessee in Tiger Lily, LLC, et al. v. United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development, et al.
The ruling
invalidates the eviction moratorium order imposed by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Sixth
Circuit held that the nationwide moratorium issued by CDC, stopping
residential evictions, exceeds the agency’s statutory authority.
The New Civil
Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed a
successful amici curiae brief in the
federal district court in Tiger Lily.
NCLA’s brief—signed by amici NCLA, the Beacon Center of
Tennessee, the National Apartment Association, and the National Association of
Residential Property Managers—argued that Congress never granted CDC the
unlimited authority to take any conceivable action it deems necessary to fight
infection.
Congress
never anticipated that CDC would intrude into the operations of state
landlord-tenant courts under the pretense of protecting public health.
Ultimately, the
District Court—and now the Sixth Circuit—adopted NCLA’s argument.
The court concluded
that Congress did not authorize the CDC to “shut down evictions across the
country.” Absent an exceedingly clear congressional mandate, the Sixth
Circuit ruled, “the CDC cannot nationalize landlord-tenant law.”
 |
Judge Amul Thapar
|
Judge Amul Thapar agreed with the panel’s decision but
wrote separately to highlight the separation-of-powers concerns that arise when
an administrative agency oversteps its bounds.
As Judge Thapar
explained, the Founders designed Congress to be the branch that is “most
responsive to the will of the people.”
“By shifting responsibility to a less
accountable branch, Congress protects itself from political censure—and
deprives the people of the say the framers intended them to have.
"And yet,
over the years, the guardrails have crumbled.”
Judge Thapar
called on the Supreme Court to “consider breathing new life” into the
nondelegation doctrine.
The case against
CDC proves why a strong nondelegation doctrine is so important, Judge Thapar
concluded: “It is not our job as judges to make legislative rules that favor
one side or another.
"But nor
should it be the job of bureaucrats embedded in the executive
branch. While landlords and tenants likely disagree on much, there is one
thing both deserve: for their problems to be resolved by their elected representative.”
 |
Philip Hamburger
|
NCLA released the following statement:
“The Sixth Circuit has
rejected CDC’s view that it has unlimited power to prohibit or require anything
it can imagine. CDC has taken a terrifying view of its own authority, and the
court wisely understood that our constitutional protections must be protected
most in times of crisis.”
— Caleb Kruckenberg,
NCLA Litigation Counsel
 |
| Judy Pino |
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan,
nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to
protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State.
NCLA’s public-interest
litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of
state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will
help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
CONTACT:
Judy Pino
202-869-5218
judy.pino@ncla.legal
