The Department of Justice is backing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alleging the health agency’s new eviction moratorium is lawful. “The department has vigorously defended the statutory authority of the CDC to issue [an] eviction moratorium and we will continue to do so,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters in Washington during an unrelated press conference on Thursday. The CDC on Tuesday announced a fresh eviction pause for most of the United States, despite top Biden administration officials—including President Joe Biden—saying the agency could not legally do so because of recent court rulings. A group of landlords, real estate companies, and property management groups asked a judge to block the moratorium in a filing Wednesday that cited those comments. For instance, the White House said on July 29 that the CDC would not extend an eviction ban that was about to expire because “the Supreme Court has made …