This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, September 9th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The CDC has issued a sweeping order to stop evictions of renters during this global

pandemic. The proper question might be, under what authority?

Caters Walter Olson walks through some of the legal arguments that are sure to be offered

as landlords challenge this order.

Before the CDC announcement that we will get to,

what was the state of eviction moratoriums in light of this? of

the state and local level.

Of course, eviction is a state and local level. Of course, eviction is a state and local legal action.

Does not go on in federal courts generally.

And as part of the reaction to the pandemic,

of course, states generally

either close their courts for a while or sharply limited how the courts operated.

And part of that in a great many states was either a complete moratorium on evictions or perhaps moving them through a narrow window only of certain types of them that might be allowed to go forward.

So that was not too controversial because the courts were closing for all sorts of legitimate cases.

Right, so to understand this correctly, you understand that the eviction moratorium is because people who might wish to

challenge that could not have a day in court in order to do so.

People who might want to conduct an eviction to the extent that it requires court process or the tenant

would have to be allowed court process to challenge the eviction. That couldn't

go forward because the courts during the emergency were unable to handle that kind of business in the judgment

sometimes the courts themselves, sometimes the governor, sometimes the legislature's.

...