Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/21a23_ap6c.pdf
Page Number: 7

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

7 

Per Curiam 

measure  “necessary.”  42  U. S. C.  §264(a);  42  CFR  §70.2.
Could the CDC, for example, mandate free grocery delivery 
to the homes of the sick or vulnerable?  Require manufac-
turers to provide free computers to enable people to work 
from home?  Order telecommunications companies to pro-
vide  free  high-speed  Internet  service  to  facilitate  remote 
work? 

This  claim  of  expansive  authority  under  §361(a)  is  un-
precedented.  Since that provision’s enactment in 1944, no
regulation premised on it has even begun to approach the
size or scope of the eviction moratorium.  And it is further 
amplified by the CDC’s decision to impose criminal penal-
ties of up to a $250,000 fine and one year in jail on those 
who  violate  the  moratorium.    See  86  Fed.  Reg.  43252;  42 
CFR §70.18(a).  Section 361(a) is a wafer-thin reed on which 
to rest such sweeping power. 

B 
The equities do not justify depriving the applicants of the
District Court’s judgment in their favor.  The moratorium 
has  put  the  applicants,  along  with  millions  of  landlords 
across the country, at risk of irreparable harm by depriving 
them of rent payments with no guarantee of eventual recov-
ery.  Despite  the  CDC’s  determination  that  landlords
should  bear  a  significant  financial  cost  of  the  pandemic,
many landlords have modest means.  And preventing them 
from evicting tenants who breach their leases intrudes on
one of the most fundamental elements of property owner-
ship—the  right  to  exclude.  See  Loretto  v.  Teleprompter 
Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U. S. 419, 435 (1982).

As  harm  to  the  applicants  has  increased,  the  Govern-
ment’s interests have decreased.  Since the District Court 
entered its stay, the Government has had three additional
months  to  distribute  rental-assistance  funds  to  help  ease 
the transition away from the moratorium.  Whatever inter-
est the Government had in maintaining the moratorium’s