By Noah Rothman
Wednesday, August 04, 2021
It is unfortunately not all that rare for American
presidents to do unconstitutional things. It is blessedly rare to hear them
announce on national television that they’re prepared to knowingly do
something unconstitutional. It’s even rarer for presidents to announce that
they are taking that illegal action of their own volition, not because Congress
compelled them to do so. But that is precisely what Joe Biden did on Tuesday
evening. Not only did he affirm that the policy he was prepared to extend via
fiat likely violated America’s founding charter, the policy itself is a failure
on its own terms and morally bankrupt to boot.
Minutes before Biden addressed the press on Tuesday, his
administration announced that it would cave to the ironic demand from congressional
progressives to extend a Trump-era initiative halting evictions nationwide. But
where did the authority come from for such a sweeping intervention into the
private economy, Biden was asked. His answer was simple: It didn’t exist.
“Are you sure it’s going to pass Supreme Court
muster?” one reporter asked the president. Good question. After all,
the Court had recently ruled that the CDC-administered
moratorium on evictions would have to expire last month, and the administration
had previously suggested that it would abide by that verdict. Biden assured the
reporter that he had sought out the expertise of constitutional scholars on the
matter, but only to ignore their advice. “The bulk of the Constitutional scholarship
says that it’s not likely to pass Constitutional muster, number one,” Biden
bizarrely confessed. But his assault on American law and custom didn’t end
there. Biden continued: “There are several key scholars who think that it may
and it’s worth the effort.” In other words, while conceding the illegality of
this executive order, the White House believes it will take time for the courts
to make that determination. In the interim, this act of lawlessness could have
the desired effect.
Brazen doesn’t even begin to describe this.
Biden’s admission alone would be an unforgivable—indeed,
impeachable—display of contempt for the president’s oath of office even if the
policy Biden sought to extend was a sound one. But it is not. The eviction
moratorium has had a terribly distorting effect on the American housing market,
and many victims of what was supposed to be a temporary emergency measure are
precisely the people progressives insist they want to help.
The government-backed prohibition on imposing consequences
on derelict renters has contributed to an 8.1 percent year-over-year increase in the median rent
price in America in the month of June. But that average price increase masks
the true scope of the scandal. Rental prices in 44 of the nation’s 50 largest
metropolitan areas posted gains over 20 percent. The shortage of available
rental units and the soaring price of homes is contributing to a dearth of
available rental properties, forcing people to put their lives on hold.
Moreover, the lack of any incentive to cater to the
rental market has led property owners to sell rather than rent, contributing to
the national inventory shortage. “A year ago, a three-bedroom two-bath that
would’ve rented for say $1,350,” one New Mexico-based realtor pointed out, “well now, it will
get $1,800 or $1,900 a month.” And though his average monthly listings are
halved from where they were a year ago, the number of applications for any
listed property has skyrocketed. Americans are desperate for a place to live.
While there is a shortage of rental units, there is no
dearth of horror stories from property owners who are trapped in abusive
relationships with squatters. One representative story published in the Washington Post tells the enraging tale of a New
York state landlord whose life’s investment is being stolen—brazenly and
without remorse—out from under him. Reason provides another: an outrageous
account of a Chinese immigrant who saved just enough to buy an investment
property only to watch as her tenant—a recent dropout from an elite private
college—squat on her land without paying any rent or taking advantage of programs
that help bridge financing for renters in financial distress. And so on, and so on. And if the Biden administration has its way,
violators of his executive edict could face six-figure fines and even jail
time.
If there ever was any justification for this, there is no
longer. The job market has recovered from the immediate after-effects of the
pandemic—indeed, there are millions of available employment opportunities, and
employers are desperate to hire talent. The federal government’s intervention
in the rental market has contributed to a condition in which housing is
unrealistically priced, young people cannot start their lives, and distressed
renters cannot house themselves and their families. It is contributing to a
moral atrocity in which the federal government provides a backstop for
scofflaws while stealing from prudent investors the fruits of their labors. And
to top it all off, it is almost certainly illegal by the president’s own
admission.
The Biden administration should be ashamed of itself.
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