WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday agreed to put on hold her May 5 ruling invalidating the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) nationwide moratorium on evictions pending the Justice Department’s appeal.
U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich’s ruling said the CDC’s action was supported by data analyses “that estimate that as many as 433,000 cases of COVID-19 and thousands of deaths could be attributed to the lifting of state-based eviction” bans.
While acknowledging landlords face continuing unpaid rent, Friedrich said “the magnitude of these additional financial losses is outweighed by the department’s weighty interest in protecting the public.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)