Illinois landlords have become the latest group to go to court to challenge the authority of federal health officials to use the COVID-19 pandemic to justify an order barring rental property owners from removing tenants who refuse to pay rent.
On Aug. 12, attorney Daniel Suhr, of the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center, filed suit in Chicago federal court on behalf of rental property owners, asserting the Centers for Disease Control overstepped their authority in issuing a new nationwide moratorium on evictions.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has once again asserted the power to regulate any aspects of the U.S. economy it wishes, this time defying a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court,” the landlords wrote in their complaint. "This latest order, like those before it, oversteps the CDC’s statutory authority.”
Daniel Suhr
| Liberty Justice Center
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of landlords Syed Rahman and Mark Weyermuller, and the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association.
According to the complaint, Rahman, an immigrant who is now retired, owns residential rental properties in Will and DuPage counties, which he allegedly uses to fund his retirement. Weyermuller is a shareholder in corporate entities that own and manage five similar rental properties with more than 200 tenants in Chicago, according to the complaint.
The IRPOA is a lobbying organization that claims to represent the interests of more than 1,000 rental property owners in Illinois.
The lawsuit is similar to those filed in other federal courts elsewhere in the country challenging the eviction ban order issued by the CDC on Aug. 3.
The complaint notes that the CDC order came despite previous losses in court, in which federal judges ruled the CDC had exceeded its authority by imposing such a moratorium at all.
Further, the complaint noted, when the matter landed before the U.S. Supreme Court, at least five of the nine justices indicated on June 29 they believed the CDC had overstepped the bounds of its authority set by Congress. However, one of those five, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, chose not to strike down the moratorium, saying he believed it best to simply allow the moratorium to expire as scheduled on July 31.
Nonetheless, after Congress declined to pass legislation explicitly authorizing such a moratorium, the CDC, under President Joe Biden, yet issued another evictions ban, applicable to regions of the U.S. that are documented to face “substantial” or “high” rates of “community transmission of COVID-19.”
The complaint notes that designation could now apply to nearly the entire country. In Illinois, the CDC order would apply to 97 of the state’s 102 counties, as of Aug. 12, the complaint said, including all of Illinois’ most populous counties.
Property owners found to be in violation of the ban could face fines of up to $100,000 and potential imprisonment for up to one year.
The new ban has been promptly challenged in federal courts, with at least one judge indicating she did not believe the moratorium could hold up.
The complaint accuses the CDC of abusing its power by issuing an order that unlawfully tramples on property owners’ constitutional rights to protect their property rights in court, while also inserting the federal government into landlord-tenant law, a legal arena they said that has been delegated to the states.
The plaintiffs are seeking a court order striking down the order and barring the CDC from seeking to enforce its evictions ban.
The lawsuit also comes as other Illinois landlords are continuing their court battle against a similar evictions ban issued in Illinois by Gov. JB Pritzker.
Since March 2020, Pritkzer has used emergency powers he claimed under Illinois law amid the COVID pandemic to impose and repeatedly extend a statewide moratorium on nearly all evictions, even in instances in which tenants simply refuse to pay rent.
The statewide evictions moratorium is scheduled to expire on Aug. 31. Pritzker earlier this summer said he did not believe it necessary to again bar evictions.
The case remains pending.
However, this spring, a state appeals panel denied the landlords’ request for an injunction against Pritzker’s order, saying they believed Illinois law governing public health emergencies gave the governor the authority to issue such moratoriums for as long as the governor believes is necessary.
They said the threat posed by COVID-19 outweighed the risk of economic devastation faced by property owners, who could themselves have their property seized, should they be unable to make payments on their mortgage loans or to pay property taxes. Landlords have warned in court of a dangerous ripple effect throughout the Illinois housing market and economy, should evictions bans be upheld.
Despite repeated losses in court, rental property owners said they intend to fight for a court order prohibiting such eviction moratoriums now and in the future.
“Our goal is for the court to find that the governor exceeded his statutory and constitutional authority in imposing the eviction moratorium,” said Paul Arena, of the IRPOA. “We do intend to continue the lawsuit until we get a ruling on the appeal.”