Covid-19 Articles & Commentary
Courts Grant NJ Gov. Murphy Blank Check on “Emergencies”
The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court just gave Gov. Phil Murphy a blank check to make law through executive orders anytime there are signs of an economic downturn approaching. In Kravitz v. Murphy, the court ruled New Jersey’s Disaster Control Act—a...
The Eleventh Circuit Helped Cement the Judiciary’s COVID Legacy in NCLA’s Challenge to the CDC Eviction Moratorium
Last week, a panel for the Eleventh Circuit in Brown v. Secretary of HHS determined that the U.S. Center for Disease Control likely lacked any power to issue its nationwide eviction moratorium, but two of the three judges still refused to block CDC’s unlawful...
Governor Cuomo’s Unconstitutional Vaccine Passport Program
At the end of March 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he was launching the nation’s only Vaccine Passport Program. In order to gain entry to venues that host large-scale events, including sports stadiums and concert halls, people must scan...
CDC Does Not Have Power to Regulate Access to Courts and Its Order Needs to Be Struck Down
NCLA has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of housing providers who have been frozen out of state court under penalty of criminal sanction by the Center of Disease Control’s unlawful order preventing access to courts to recover property when a tenant...
Flattening the Curve on Our Civil Liberties: Are Courts Social Distancing from the Constitution?
We just observed the first anniversary of “15 days to flatten the curve.” Since then, we’ve learned at least two important lessons. First, there’s no quick fix to flattening an infection curve. Second, the virus may be more resilient than our civil liberties....
Local Governments Blew a Hole in Their Budgets: They Intend to Patch It by Taking Your Property Rights
Anyone with a lick of sense knew that smothering our economy would severely curtail the ability of local governments to generate sales tax revenue. Whether the doors of restaurants and other businesses are shut tight and sealed, such as in New York City and Los...
The Cost of CDC’s Eviction Moratorium
The Centers for Disease Control issued an order last week imposing a moratorium on most evictions in states that have not already enacted more-restrictive eviction bans. The order effectively creates a nationwide eviction moratorium through the end of the year....
Supreme Court of Virginia Orders Landlords to Provide Rent-Free Housing As a Consequence of COVID-19
It’s become trendy to vilify landlords in the time of COVID-19, with calls for rent strikes and vocal critics accusing landlords of preying on those worst affected by the economic downturn. Of course, residential landlords often are making payments of their own...
Where Do I Go to Get My Constitutional Rights Back?
On Friday the 13th of March, President Trump issued his “Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak.” In the ensuing 4 ½ months Governors across the country have used executive orders to lockdown their...
Deference in a Pandemic
As the nation’s struggle to contain COVID-19 continues into the latter half of 2020, Congress is considering a second major stimulus package to stem the flow of financial (and human) suffering across the sinking economy. The first stimulus package—the CARES Act—was...