With the Biden administration’s constitutionally dubious extension of a nationwide eviction moratorium comes the inevitable lawsuit seeking to overturn it:

Landlords filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s extension of the coronavirus eviction moratorium until October, saying it goes against a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in July.

The Biden administration’s edict should be struck down because the high court clearly said when it allowed the moratorium to be continued it was relying on an assurance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the agency had no intention of authorizing a further extension, according to a filing late Wednesday in the Atlanta-based federal court of appeals by the Alabama Association of Realtors.

A district court judge ruled against the plaintiffs “even as she voiced concerns over the legality of the policy.”

Judge Dabney Friedrich said:

…she was forced to keep the moratorium in place because of a ruling by the U.S. appeals court in Washington that allowed a previous nationwide version of the policy to stand.

“The court’s hands are tied,” she wrote.

But there’s more than one lawsuit pending:

The National Apartment Association has a separate lawsuit pending in Washington to recover damages the organization claims its members suffered as a result of the federal eviction moratorium. The NAA claims that by the end of last year, more than 10 million delinquent tenants owed $57 billion in unpaid rent. Apartment owners are now responsible for $27 billion of debt not covered by federal rental assistance, the group argued in its July complaint.

Strictly in dollar terms, the cost of placating congressional progressives and their affiliate groups is very high. The political and institutional costs may be even higher.