(CNN) A federal judge suggested Monday that "gamesmanship" was at play with the eviction moratorium the Biden administration rolled out last week, but also expressed skepticism about the legal arguments being put forward by landlords who are seeking to block the moratorium. The question of whether millions of people could be soon evicted from their homes is in front of DC District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Donald Trump appointee who previously ruled with the landlord groups that have challenged the moratorium in court. At a court hearing on Monday, she weighed a request by the landlords to halt the version of the moratorium issued Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new eviction order was unveiled after President Joe Biden and his aides had suggested that they did not think such an order would hold up in court because Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the swing vote on the Supreme Court on the issue, indicated he would not support future extensions of the moratorium. "It is really hard ... to conclude that there is not a degree of gamesmanship going on," Friedrich said, pointing to the Supreme Court's handling of the issue and the comments made by Biden administration officials.

Source: CNN August 09, 2021 16:30 UTC