A second U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Centers for Disease Control’s nationwide order banning evictions is unconstitutional.

The Pacific Legal Foundation said the ruling in the Ohio case was “a victory for the rule of law,” and made clear that “federal agencies can’t exercise power Congress has not given them. Now our clients no longer have to provide housing for free.”

Judge Philip Calabrese wrote:

…one may view the CDC’s eviction moratorium as good and essential public policy or the opposite. But those considerations are not for the Court. Nor may the Court decide this case based on its own personal or policy preferences or its views of the competing public interests involved.

Instead, this dispute presents a narrower question. This case turns on whether Congress has authorized the CDC to adopt a nationwide eviction moratorium.

Calabrese said no such delegation of authority had been made.

An earlier decision in a Texas case Judge J. Campbell Barker wrote in a somewhat similar vein: 

…the federal government’s Article I power to regulate interstate commerce and enact laws necessary and proper to that end does not include the power to impose the challenged eviction moratorium.

The Texas decision is currently being appealed.