Here's the latest in a case we've been following.
Not that long ago, the Ninth Circuit held that a challenge to Washington state's Co-19 eviction moratorium was moot because the moratorium had ended, and the plaintiffs had only sought declaratory relief. Thus, the court concluded, the moratorium did not have a "brooding presence" affecting the plaintiffs.
The owners have now asked the Supreme Court to review the case, and in this cert petition have posed these Questions Presented:
1. Because the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment demands just compensation for governmental takings, including temporary ones, did the Ninth Circuit err in dismissing as moot a challenge to Washington State’s COVID-19 eviction moratoria by landowners who suffered great losses by bearing the social burden of providing public housing during the pandemic against their will because those moratoria had ended by the time the case reached the Ninth Circuit on appeal?2. When a Governor prohibits landowners from evicting non-paying or rule-breaking tenants for many months forcing those landowners to bear the social burden of providing housing during a health pandemic, has the State effected a regulatory taking that demands just compensation under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment?3. Did the Ninth Circuit depart from the settled precedent of this Court and other Circuits of the Court of Appeals by concluding that the landlords could not enforce the Takings Clause through a declaratory judgment action?
Stay tuned here, or follow along on the Court's docket.
Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, Jevons v. Inslee, No. 23-490 (U.S. Nov. 6, 2023)
