Supreme Court declines to lift eviction moratorium
29 June 2021
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision issued Tuesday evening to leave the national moratorium on evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intact through July 31.
Driving the news: The Biden administration issued a 30-day extension to the temporary halt in residential evictions, the CDC announced last week, after its original deadline was set to expire on June 30.
- But a group of landlords and real-estate companies filed an emergency request to override the extension and effectively end the moratorium after a federal judge ruled last month it was "legally unsupportable," the Wall Street Journal reports.
The big picture: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberal justices in declining to lift the U.S.-wide moratorium.
- Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett voted to lift the moratorium.
- Kavanaugh said he agreed that the CDC exceeded its authority in enacting the moratorium, but added that the extra weeks of the extension will allow the government "additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds."
- "In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31," he added.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.