PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021
Uncertainty
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
CDC should stay in its own lane
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
Justice Brett Kavanaugh was trying
to be a nice guy. In an act of judicial gal-
lantry, he chose to give the losing side a
break.
The Alabama Association of Realtors
had sued to halt the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention’s eviction mora-
torium on the grounds that bureaucracies
don’t have the authority to write laws.
Four Supreme Court justices—
Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil
Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett—sided
with the realtors.
For his part, Kavanaugh wrote on June
29, he agreed that the CDC had exceeded
its authority in issuing a national evic-
tion moratorium, but since the morato-
rium was scheduled to end on July 31, he
decided to let the situation ride.
“Because the CDC plans to end the
moratorium in only a few weeks, on July
31, and because those few weeks will
allow for additional and more orderly dis-
tribution of the congressionally appropri-
ated rental assistance funds,” Kavanaugh
explained, he voted to allow the program
to continue through July 31, for what was
supposed to be the final extension.
Let’s just say Kavanaugh is unlikely to
make the same mistake again.
On Aug. 3, CDC Director Rochelle
Walensky signed an order extending the
moratorium until Oct. 3.
There are good reasons to extend
the eviction moratorium. With the delta
variant leading to a rapid acceleration
of community transmission, authori-
ties have an interest in keeping people
in their homes. And who wants to see
mass evictions during the hot COVID-19
summer?
There also are good reasons not to
extend it. The federal government outra-
geously has shifted the burden to land-
lords without compensating them. While
supporters maintain that renters still
will be liable for skipped rent, they’re not
fooling anyone.
In March 2020, Congress passed the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic
Security Act, which included a 120-day
moratorium on evictions from rental
properties. That is, Congress approved
and the president signed a law against
most evictions.
Later, Congress passed a bill that
extended the moratorium until Jan. 31 of
this year. Again, your elected officials did
their jobs, and voters will be free to elect
others to Congress and the White House
if they don’t like what happened.
Later, the CDC extended the hold on
evictions until March 31, then June 30,
then July 31 and now Oct. 3 -- and that is
problematic because the CDC does not
have the authority to write laws.
“Congress knows how to pass a mora-
torium if they want,” attorney Luke Wake
of the nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation
told me. PLF filed a lawsuit for the
Apartment Association of Louisiana
other
VOICES
and other landlords that argued the
CDC lacks the authority to impose the
moratorium.
“If we thought it was important to
keep these tenants in place, why didn’t
we appropriate funds for that?” Wake
added, noting that the CDC shifted the
weight onto landlords.
Observers can argue that the question
is unsettled.
It’s not just the Supreme Court that
thinks the CDC doesn’t have the author-
ity to write laws. Biden and members of
his administration said as much.
On Aug. 2, as prominent Democrats
were pushing for the administration
to do what Congress wasn’t doing,
Biden’s senior COVID-19 adviser, Gene
Sperling, told reporters the Supreme
Court declared the CDC could not grant
an extension “without clear and specific
congressional authorization.”
That was the day before Walensky
signed the moratorium order.
And on the day the moratorium order
was signed, Biden admitted, “The bulk
of the constitutional scholarship says
that it’s not likely to pass constitutional
muster.”
Rather than press Congress to pass
legislation, the Biden White House
preferred to toss the hot potato to the
Supreme Court.
As Judge John K. Bush of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
warned in a ruling for a similar case,
granting new authority to the CDC
would give its “director near-dictatorial
power for the duration of the pandemic,
with authority to shut down entire indus-
tries as freely as she could ban evictions.”
What could go wrong?
(Creators Syndicate)
To the Editor:
Human civilizations almost always
have had something in common. That
something has been a willingness of the
governed to be governed. In other words,
the people consent to be under a ruler
where he or she came to power usually
by strength of force, appointment, or elec-
tion. The U.S. Constitution was accepted
by American colonists after the British
were defeated by force of arms and then
represented centuries of trial and error in
efforts to improve human lives through
self-government.
A count of those nations now and in
the past that have established and main-
tained a democracy are few in the world
today compared to the number of autoc-
racies. People get impatient with democ-
racies because they do not satisfy a real
or imagined need for action now or fail to
fulfil their campaign promises. With dic-
tatorships, the power is concentrated in
the hands of one person and a few trusted
advisors who make all decisions great and
small while the citizens of such arrange-
ments cooperate or face uncertain futures
by punishments meted out to those who
criticize it or commit infractions.
The United States is in the midst of
uncertainty: whether to retain our system
of law and order made by elected offi-
cials or turn to a dictatorial form of gov-
ernment. What we have at present here
is an elected governor who, in the latest
“contest” of who’s in charge, has decided
by a pandemic to mandate the wearing of
mask almost everywhere. Subsequently,
several Oregon county sheriffs have
taken to demanding their constitutional
freedom, “God-given rights,” refusing to
cooperate with Gov. Kate Brown.
This kind of obstructive behavior has
been demonstrated multiple times by the
most recent president. Rationalizations to
justify resistance-to-comply provide per-
mission for some to decide for themselves
whether to obey laws, mandates or gov-
ernment orders. It also begs anarchy: an
absence of authority or control leading to
disorder followed often by pandemonium.
Is this what a majority of Oregonians
want? If so, we should get ready for any-
thing goes because it’s highly likely from
history that freedom-seeking sheriffs will
ultimately be swept aside by marauding
gangs.
Gene H. McIntyre
Keizer
Letters
Cancer event
goes local
To the Editor:
Every American has faced uncertain and
challenging times through the pandemic.
For Oregonians diagnosed with cancer this
year, the stakes have been even higher.
Cancer patients, their families and their
caregivers need to know we’re still here for
them—that the American Cancer Society
Cancer Action Network and its volunteers
haven’t stopped advocating for critical
research funds and access to health care. I
am proud to have had a visible way to raise
awareness for cancer, as a volunteer for the
past 24 years, and to bring hope as we con-
tinue to emerge from the pandemic.
ACS CAN’s annual Lights of Hope cer-
emony is usually held in Washington, D.C.,
where thousands of lit bags line the Lincoln
Memorial, decorated with the names of can-
cer survivors and those lost to the disease.
Because of the pandemic, we won’t be
traveling to D.C. Instead, we’ll display Lights
of Hope bags on our front porches, kitchen
tables and front lawns as we bring hope
home to communities around the nation. I
look forward to displaying Lights of Hope
bags honoring survivors and remember-
ing those lost to cancer in Salem. To view
the display featured on Facebook life on
www.facebook.com/ACSCANOregon on
Saturday, Sept. 18 starting at 7 p.m.
Teresa Warnock , Dist. Lead Ambassador
American Cancer Society/
Cancer Action Network
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