There is centuries of legal precedent about the ability to quarantine and take other appropriate measures to prevent the spread of infectious disease. Noting...I'm not an expert, but my partner lives in this world and I have learned an enormous amount over the yearas because it is profoundly interesting to me.

Public health laws predate not just the constitution but the bible...the Romans had sanitary building codes, quarantine authority, etc. Protecting public welfare and safety, i.e., public health, is one of the duties of the state and until this pandemic very few actions taken in support of that have been questioned...especially by the courts. Historically, the first actions the US took related to public health came in the yellow fever epidemic in the late 1700s. That include banning trade between New York and Philadelphia, moving the seat of federal government, quarantining whole cities.

To your point, this power to quarantine isn't strictly part of the CDC charter but it is a power of the CDC workforce...specifically the Public Health Commissioned Corps (c.f. the Surgeon General). However, those actions occur through the CDC or the US public health service or the Department of Health and Human Services. Why the Trump administration chose to have the CDC issue the moratorium I'm not entirely clear. However, what you linked to is not the charter of the CDC, it is the charter of an advisory committee. Historically, for process reasons related to statutory authority and management of the Public Health Commissioned Corps, quarantine orders have come from the CDC when done for people at borders, the USDA for animals, and HHS for inside of the US.

But really what you want to know is about statutory authority...the Surgeon General, typically acting through the CDC, has clear authority at the border, and would seem to be reasonably assumed to have authority in the US. Quoting from USC 42.6A.II.G.264

>The Surgeon General, with the approval of the Secretary, is authorized to make and enforce such regulations as in his judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the States or possessions, or from one State or possession into any other State or possession. For purposes of carrying out and enforcing such regulations, the Surgeon General may provide for such inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destruction of animals or articles found to be so infected or contaminated as to be sources of dangerous infection to human beings, and other measures, as in his judgment may be necessary.

Does that mean that because it was done by the CDC rather than the surgeon general it is invalid? Maybe...but clearly congress sought to give reasonably broad authority. Does restrictions on commerce via eviction moratoriums specifically fall under 'such regulations as in his judgement are necessary to prevent ...spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries? Maybe...I would say it does and traditionally courts say it does.

Quoting a source here "The only successful attacks on such exercises of state police power have been based on federal preemption of state laws that restricted interstate commerce or on laws that were mere shams for racial discrimination. Yet even interference with interstate commerce is not always fatal to health regulations. *If a state regulation is substantially related to health and safety, the Supreme Court will uphold it. This is true even if the regulation interferes with interstate commerce, such as would result from a cordon sanitaria in which all travel is forbidden. From vaccinations to quarantines, laws enacted to protect society have been upheld even when they force individuals to sacrifice liberty and privacy.*

Rent is a form of commerce, it is insanity that this was meaningfully challenged by the SCOTUS. It has never, in history of this country's, been meaningfully challenged. The government's responsibility is to the public health...not landlord's profits.

https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/yourab...

https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/yourab...

https://www.usphs.gov/about-us

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantin...

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2011-title42/html...