ATLANTA -- A federal judge in Atlanta is weighing a challenge to a Trump administration directive that halts the eviction of certain renters through the end of the year in an effort to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month issued an order barring landlords from evicting anyone covered by the order from a residential property for failure to pay rent. The measure followed an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in early August that instructed public health officials to consider measures to temporarily halt evictions.
Individual landlords in four states -- Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina and Virginia -- and a trade association representing owners and managers of rental housing in all 50 states filed a lawsuit challenging the order. The inability to evict tenants who aren't paying rent is causing the landlords irreparable harm, they argue, and they asked the court to prohibit the enforcement of the order while the lawsuit is pending.
The lawsuit, filed in Atlanta where the CDC is located, is one of several across the country challenging the agency's order.
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U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee on Tuesday heard arguments from lawyers for the landlords and the government during a video hearing. He asked few questions and did not indicate when he might rule on the request.
The CDC order, which took effect Sept. 4 and runs through the end of the year, was issued just as other coronavirus-related eviction bans were expiring. The agency argued that bans are an effective tool for preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
"They do so by facilitating self-isolation for sick and high-risk persons, easing implementation of stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures, reducing the need for congregate housing, and helping to prevent homelessness," the government said in a court filing.
To be eligible for protection, renters must have an income of $198,000 or less for couples filing jointly, or $99,000 for single filers; demonstrate they've sought government help to pay rent; declare that they can't pay because of covid-19 hardships; and affirm that they are likely to become homeless if evicted.
In asking the judge to invalidate the CDC's order, lawyer Caleb Kruckenberg argued that the agency has exceeded the authority granted to it by Congress, acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and unconstitutionally impaired his clients' ability to access the courts.
His clients are not asking the judge to evict anyone, they're simply asking to be allowed to go through the court process provided for by law for landlords whose tenants aren't paying rent, Kruckenberg said.
He called the CDC's action "breathtaking" in its scope and, noting that the agency's order could be extended beyond its current deadline, said his clients are "being forced by the CDC to provide free housing indefinitely."
Leslie Vigen, a lawyer for the government, noted the extraordinary circumstances of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people in the U.S., and argued that the order represents the CDC's "reasoned judgment as a public health agency."
The agency has provided numerous findings that show why public health experts believe eviction bans help prevent the spread of the virus, she said. The order is in the public interest, and the temporary imposition on the landlords' property does not amount to an invalidation of state law, she argued.
She warned that invalidating the order could result in millions of evictions across the country leading into the winter flu season.
POSTAL SERVICE WOES
Separately, the U.S. Postal Service still isn't processing election mail on time, even after being ordered by judges to halt disruptive changes like banning worker overtime and late delivery trips, Pennsylvania's attorney general said.
Democrats have accused Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of undermining the Postal Service just as the nation is expecting a record surge in use of mail-in ballots because of the pandemic. The postal agency didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Postal Service data show the agency's performance levels are down more than 5% from where they were before the changes took effect in July and "continue to be lower than at any point in 2020," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a federal court filing Monday in Philadelphia.
"Despite being subject to multiple injunctions, defendants have not improved their service performance," said Shapiro, who wants U.S. District Judge Gerald Austin McHugh to appoint an independent monitor to ensure the Postal Service abides by court orders.
Shapiro, who's leading one of three multistate suits against the Postal Service, said agency compliance with rules about election-mail processing and daily delivery is supposed to be at 100%. According to agency data, compliance is as low as 85% in one division, and some units aren't reporting figures at all.
And late and extra trips, which are supposed to be reinstated under the injunction, have barely nudged up and are nowhere near pre-July levels, suggesting more could be done to improve performance, he said.
In other developments:
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed strict coronavirus restrictions on England's second-largest urban area Tuesday, after talks with officials in Greater Manchester collapsed over how much financial aid should be handed to residents whose livelihoods will be hit by the new measures.
Johnson, who has been struggling to impose his plan for localized restrictions on restive regions, said he "bitterly" regrets ordering measures that would damage businesses. But he stressed that not acting would put lives and the health care system in Manchester at risk.
• Northern Ireland has closed schools for two weeks, banned most social gatherings and shut down many businesses including bars and restaurants for a month.
• Wales has gone the furthest, announcing a two-week "firebreak" lockdown starting Friday that will close all nonessential businesses and ban most trips outside the home.
• Argentina passed 1 million virus cases Monday. Across Latin America, three other nations -- Colombia, Mexico and Peru -- are expected to reach the 1 million case milestone in coming weeks. The grim mark comes as Latin America continues to register some of the world's highest daily case counts.
"The second wave is arriving without ever having finished the first," said Dr. Luis Jorge Hernandez, a public health professor at the University of the Andes in Colombia.
Information for this article was contributed by Kate Brumback, Jill Lawless, Sylvia Hui, Nicolas Deluca, Almudena Calatrava and Christine Armario of The Associated Press; and by Erik Larson of Bloomberg News.