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Apartment Association of Los Angeles County, Inc., dba Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles, California, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 20-56251 · judgment August 25, 2021

Certiorari denied · April 18, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a business petitioner, and down for a state or local-government respondent.

Question presented

In March 2020, the City of Los Angeles adopted its COVID-19 eviction moratorium, forcing landlords to furnish housing to defaulting tenants impacted by the pandemic, and authorizing tenants to withhold payment of their monthly rents for up to 12 months following the expiration of the “local emergency.” While the moratorium does not, on its face, eliminate tenants’ contractual obligation to pay back rent in the future, that is the inevitable outcome. Both the district court and Ninth Circuit applied a version of rational basis to uphold the eviction moratorium in the face of Petitioner’s Contracts Clause claim, deferring to the City’s determination of reasonableness and giving no effect to this Court’s precedent that the “severity of the impairment measures the height of the hurdle the state legislation must clear,” in that “[m]inimal alteration of contractual obligations may end the inquiry at the first stage,” while “[s]evere impairment . . . will push the inquiry to a careful examination of the nature and purpose of the state legislation.” Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus, 438 U.S. 234, 245 (1978); see also Energy Reserves Grp., Inc. v. Kansas Power & Light Co., 459 U.S. 400, 411 (1983) (“The severity of the impairment is said to increase the level of scrutiny to which the legislation will be subjected.”). The questions presented include: 1. Whether a municipal law challenged under the Contracts Clause as impermissibly impairing private contracts is subject to variable scrutiny based on the severity of the contractual impairment.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Douglas J. Dennington
Rutan & Tucker LLP

For respondent
Kathryn Ann Eidmann
Public Counsel

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
3 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Apr 18 2022
    Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Foundation for Moral Law GRANTED.
  2. Apr 18 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  3. Apr 08 2022
    Supplemental brief of petitioner Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles filed. (Distributed)
    Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
  4. Mar 29 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/14/2022.
  5. Mar 24 2022
    Reply of petitioner Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles filed.
    Main DocumentCertificate of Word CountProof of Service
  6. Mar 11 2022
    Brief of respondent Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy in opposition filed.
    Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
  7. Mar 11 2022
    Brief of respondent City of Los Angeles in opposition filed.
    Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
  8. Jan 18 2022
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted in part and the time is extended to and including March 11, 2022, for all respondents.
  9. Jan 14 2022
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted in part and the time is extended to and including March 11, 2022, for all respondents.
  10. Jan 14 2022
    Motion of City of Los Angeles to extend the time to file a response from February 9, 2022 to April 11, 2022, submitted to The Clerk.
    Main DocumentProof of Service
  11. Jan 14 2022
    Response to motion from petitioner Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles filed.
    Main Document
  12. Jan 12 2022
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 9, 2022 to April 10, 2022, submitted to The Clerk.
    Main Document
  13. Jan 12 2022
    Response to motion from petitioner Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles filed.
    Main Document
  14. Jan 10 2022
    Response Requested. (Due February 9, 2022)
  15. Jan 05 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/21/2022.
  16. Dec 29 2021
    Brief amicus curiae of New Civil Liberties Alliance filed.
    Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
  17. Dec 29 2021
    Brief amicus curiae of California Association of Realtors filed. (Distributed)
    Main DocumentCertificate of Word CountProof of Service
  18. Dec 28 2021
    Brief amicus curiae of California Apartment Association filed.
    Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
  19. Dec 28 2021
    Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Foundation for Moral Law.
    Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
  20. Dec 15 2021
    Waiver of right of respondent Alliance of Californians for Community Empowermet Action and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy to respond filed.
    Main Document
  21. Dec 09 2021
    Waiver of right of respondent City of Los Angeles to respond filed.
    Main Document
  22. Nov 23 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 29, 2021)
    PetitionAppendixCertificate of Word CountProof of Service