A judge ruled on Monday that a group of Westchester County, N.Y. landlords cannot sue in federal court to block Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s temporary moratorium on evictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Law.com reported. U.S. District Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York said in a 37-page opinion that federal courts do not have jurisdiction to determine whether Cuomo violated New York state law by enacting his May 7 executive order pausing evictions through Aug. 19. In any event, she said, the order did not constitute a physical or regulatory taking by the government that would give rise to claims under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit, filed in White Plains, sought to undo two provisions of the order, which temporarily blocked landlords from pursuing eviction proceedings and gave renters the option to put their security deposit toward their rent payment.
