Cea #CancelRent

Instead of doing half-measures, @NYGovCuomo should #CancelRent. It would make things clearer for tenants and landlords. If the governor froze mortgages and all utilities, this would be possible. 3+ million more people lost their jobs this week. Half-measures won’t do.https://twitter.com/ZackFinkNews/status/1258422938161819648 …

I don't quite get how the governor could unilaterally order mortgages frozen. There are serious contract law issues at stake, no?

The governor has emergency powers that allow him to take emergency measures like shelter in place. These same powers could be used to cancel rent, freeze mortgages and utilities.

I don't think any of those emergency powers allow him to impair private contracts though, right? And even if they did, any such emergency power might draw a challenge under the Constitution's Contracts Clause, wouldn't it?

Hundreds of laws have already been suspended, interrupting thousands of contracts. This is a crisis unlike any other and we need large scale solutions that protect the millions of people losing their jobs, without income, and through no fault of their own.

but laws impairing private contracts are a more difficult matter, aren't they? we know that from the history of the rent control laws.