The CDC found authority for passing the order through a creative reading of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, which gives the CDC the power to halt disease by providing for “such inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destruction of animals or articles found to be so infected or contaminated as to be sources of dangerous infection to human beings, and other measures.”
The CDC used the “other measures” standard to bridge the gap between acts like providing for “sanitation” and effectively seizing homes owned by landlords to allow people to live there for free.
