Supreme Court Blocks New York Eviction Moratorium

The Supreme Court on Thursday night blocked part of New York state’s COVID-19-related eviction moratorium at the behest of a group of landlords who say they cannot sustain its fiscal toll.

In a brief statement, the High Court said the moratorium appeared to deprive the landlords of their property without due process. The Court’s statement was unsigned and did not include a vote count, as is typical of such matters, but Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan noted their dissent.

The emergency appeal highlighted the ongoing strain landlords face even as much of the nation returns to a pre-pandemic state of affairs. Lawyers for the landlords described them as "small scale property owners" in court filings and emphasized that the moratorium has left them in dire financial straits.

Two of the applicant landlords are Mudan Shi and Feng Zhou, a married couple who rent the single-family house they own on Staten Island. Income from that property helps cover rent for the leased home they occupy with their children and elderly parents. Their Staten Island tenants have not paid rent since 2019 because of a dispute that is not COVID-related. Shi and Zhou can no longer afford their lease. Another landlord, Betty Cohen, is a retiree whose income consists of Social Security benefits and the rent she collects off a single co-op unit in Brooklyn. Cohen’s tenant stopped paying rent in March 2020 and owes her almost $25,000.