Abstract
Low-level state courts frequently disregard federal law. And though the judgments of these courts have profound legal consequence for millions of Americans, they receive little oversight. Rather than bastions of justice, low-level state courts are too often sites of lawlessness, earning them the shameful label “kangaroo courts.” This article proposes a path forward by which advocates can curb that lawlessness and enforce critically important federal protections.
As part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a broad legislative effort to protect the national economy and public health infrastructure, Congress altered mandatory procedures in eviction suits. Evictions are traumatic. They inflict long-lasting harms on the health and finances of low-income Americans. The experience of losing one’s home in near unintelligible legal proceedings is overwhelming and disempowering. The CARES Act effected an incremental yet historic adjustment of the balance of power between renters and landlords. The law guarantees the right to a thirty-day notice—critical time for low income renters to prepare and plan at a vulnerable life juncture. The new notice provision the CARES Act created has the potential to meaningfully impact the lives of millions of families.
Unfortunately, the CARES Act is inconsistently applied or completely ignored in the kangaroo courts where evictions are decided. Landlords and state court judges routinely fail to comply with the CARES Act’s mandates. Renters often lack information about their rights and are unable to obtain counsel who could assist. And, due to the landlord-friendly peculiarities of eviction suits, state appellate courts rarely intervene.
Fortunately, there may be a way forward for renters seeking to vindicate their rights. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v. Talevski affirmed the ability of private litigants to use the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to rein in state actors when they violate federal rights. I argue that failure to comply with the CARES Act notice provision is a violation of such a right. I therefore propose that advocates of renters’ rights bring affirmative claims in federal court, using this long-standing cause of action to bring clarity to the CARES Act and ensure its consistent application.
Recommended Citation
Matt Garcia,
Taming the Kangaroos,
58
U. Mich. J. L. Reform
261
(2025).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol58/iss2/2