It's Illegal. Where is the Outrage?

The United States is no longer marching towards socialism. Socialism is already here.

I wrote the following post a few weeks ago for paid subscribers. I’m making this post public from behind the paywall due to new development. On Thursday, August 27th, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the eviction ban exceeded the CDC’s authority. The court’s majority also stated: “The moratorium has put millions of landlords across the country, at risk of irreparable harm by depriving them of rent payments with no guarantee of eventual recovery…Many landlords have modest means. And preventing them from evicting tenants who breach their leases intrudes on one of the most fundamental elements of property ownership—the right to exclude.”

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It's Illegal. Where is the Outrage?

President Biden publicly acknowledged last week that his administration did something illegal. Yet, other than a few op-eds in right-leaning media outlets, most corporate media never called him out. There was no protest on the streets throughout America. The majority of Americans, including many Republicans, went about their days and didn’t bother to contemplate the significance of what the Biden administration just did. The collective silence and indifference are more shocking than the Biden administration’s illegal act. What has happened to you, America?

The illegal act is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ’s renewed eviction ban, which prevents landlords from collecting rent and criminalizes landlords for any attempt to collect rent. The ban states: “a person violating this Order may be subject to a fine of no more than $100,000 or one year in jail, or both if the violation does not result in a death; or a fine of no more than $250,000 or one year in jail if the violation results in a death.”

The ban’s language is so broad that it covers areas where 90 percent of Americans currently live. The original ban was issued in April 2020 under then President Trump. It was supposed to be only a temporary measure and was set to expire on December 31, 2020. However, like Dr. Milton Friedman said, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” The eviction ban was renewed three times and has faced legal challenges five times. All five federal courts ruled against the ban, calling it illegal for two reasons. 

First, the CDC lacks the legal authority to do this. It is a government agency that runs by unelected bureaucrats. The CDC points to the Public Health Service Act of 1944 as justification for issuing the eviction ban. But the law only permits the CDC to conduct “inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination.” Yet CDC claims it has the legal authority to prevent and even criminally punish property owners from enforcing their contractual agreement. 

According to the Six Circuit Court, the CDC’s current interpretation of the Public Health Service Act would “grant the CDC director near-dictatorial power for the duration of the pandemic, with authority to shut down entire industries as freely as she could ban evictions.” In addition, if we never eradicate COVID-19, the CDC will be able to hold on to this near-dictatorial power forever. 

Second, the CDC’s eviction ban is unconstitutional. The constitution authorizes only the U.S. Congress to make the law. When a group of landlords brought the previous CDC eviction ban to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority to let the ban stand. Nevertheless, he made it clear that the CDC couldn’t continue the ban’s renewal without “clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation).” 

Additionally, the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as: “Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Both the real estate and the rents collected are the landlords’ private properties. When the government forbids landlords to collect rents during a pandemic or government-imposed economic shutdown, the government’s action is no different from taking private properties for public use. Therefore, the government must offer landlords just compensation. Failing to do so is a violation of the Taking Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

Even President Biden recognized that the CDC’s action was unconstitutional. He told reporters at the White House that “the bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster.” Yet his justification for his CDC’s lawless act was that “by the time it gets litigated, it will probably give some additional time while we’re getting that $45 billion out to people who are, in fact, behind in the rent and don’t have the money.” The $45 billion he referred to was the rental assistance U.S. Congress authorized since last summer. So far, the local government has only managed to distribute $2 billion, which means most landlords haven’t been able to collect a penny for more than a year. Yet, they still have to pay mortgages, insurances, and maintenance. Oh, on top of those property-related expenses, landlords and their families have to eat too.

I’m deeply troubled by the CDC eviction ban for several reasons.

First, as the President of the United States, Biden took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution. However, he knowingly violated the U.S. Constitution with the eviction ban. 

Second, it bothers me that renters are portrayed as victims here while landlords as the evil party. I sympathize with renters. Many of them lost their employment through no fault of their own but was due to the government-imposed lockdown. But let’s not forget that the same lockdown hurt landlords and their families too. Many landlords are regular people with no deep pockets. They count on the rent to provide a roof over their families’ heads and put food on the table. Some of them are only a few mortgage payments away from bankruptcy. Most landlords will probably gladly take it if the renters negotiate with landlords for reduced rent payments or extended payment plans. After all, a smaller rent is better than nothing, and most landlords are not evil cold-hearted people.

The government’s job is to protect individual rights, property rights and enforce existing laws. It is not the government’s role to “save” one group at the expense of violating the other group’s rights.

Those of you who read my autobiography, “Confucius Never Said,” knew that my great-grandfather was a landowner. He was a hard-working farmer who owned farmland. He sweated on every inch of that land. Shortly after the Communist Party took over China, it forcefully took land away from two million landowners like my great-grandfather and redistributed it to landless farmers. After a few years, the Party took all the land away from all farmers and abolished private land ownership. Even today, when a Chinese person buys a house in China, they don’t own the land. What they buy is a right to live in the property for 75 years. Whenever I hear people denounce landlords, I think of my great-grandfather. This is why I’m especially bothered by how the Democrats have portrayed landlords -- as heartless people who are the “haves” so no one should feel bad to rob them.

Third, speaking of robbery, make no mistake about what has happened here. The United States is no longer marching towards socialism. Socialism is already here. Every socialist movement begins with demonizing landowners and abolishing private property rights and ends with destruction and widespread misery. I had hoped that I would not witness socialism conquer the United States in my lifetime, I was proven wrong. Let me say this: socialism sucks. Living in socialism once sucks. Living in socialism twice sucks the most.

Fourth, I have never been so disappointed with Republicans. Let’s not forget the CDC’s illegal eviction ban was first initiated under a Republican administration -- the Trump administration. Republicans had the majority in the U.S. Senate. Still, very few Republicans in the U.S. Congress or the Trump administration spoke out against the eviction ban. When a group of landlords brought their legal challenge to the eviction ban to the U.S. Supreme Court, two supposedly conservative Justices, Roberts and Kavanaugh, both were appointed by Republican presidents, joined the four liberal justices to rule against landlords. 

What’s the point of voting for Republicans if they won’t defend the rule of law and private property rights? What’s the point of having conservative justices if they won’t uphold the U.S. Constitution? It’s almost unfair to only blame the Democrats for the U.S.’s quick descend into socialism. The Republicans have done as many damages to our Constitutional Republic too.

If we want to save this Republic from socialism, we cannot count on politicians from either party or our elite class. The heavy-duty of turn this ship around falls on us, we the people. “We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history” (anonymous).

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Op-ed in The Federalist

The woke leftists do not understand meritocracy. But they are bending on destroying it anyway. Read more here.

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