By Jake Kaplan

Here are some of the legal news stories making headlines this week:

On Tuesday, the New York Attorney General’s office released a report detailing the results of an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

• Attorney General Letitia James launched the investigation in March at the request of Cuomo’s office. James appointed former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon Kim and employment discrimination attorney Anne Clark to conduct the investigation.
• The report concluded that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women “by engaging in unwanted groping, kissing… hugging, and making inappropriate comments.” The investigators also found that Cuomo fostered a “hostile work environment for women,” and retaliated against at least one woman for speaking publicly about the harassment she experienced. The victims included current and former state government employees, as well as women outside of state government. 
• Cuomo denied most of the allegations in a pre-recorded video statement released on Tuesday. Cuomo went on to say, “I do kiss people on the forehead. I do kiss people on the cheek. I do kiss people on the hand. I do embrace people. I do hug people — men and women.” Cuomo’s attorneys also released a written response to the report, which included pages of images featuring Cuomo hugging and kissing his family and other politicians, as well as images of other politicians hugging and kissing people.
• Many New York and federal politicians, including President Joe Biden, are now calling on Cuomo to resign. Cuomo also faces a potential impeachment by the Democrat-controlled New York legislature. New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced that the Assembly “will move expeditiously and look to conclude [its] impeachment investigation as quickly as possible.”

Also on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new federal moratorium on evictions.

• The CDC issued the new order “temporarily halting evictions in counties with heightened levels of community transmission” of COVID-19. The order will remain in effect until October 3rd, “but is subject to further extension, modification, or rescission based on public health circumstances.”
• The White House came under pressure to issue a new moratorium after the previous one, which started as a September 2020 executive order by then-President Donald Trump, expired last weekend. To bring awareness to the issue, progressive lawmakers, led by Rep. Cori Bush (D. Mo.), staged a sit-in on the steps of the Capitol building that lasted for four days.
• The moratorium’s legal fate, however, is not clear. In June, the Supreme Court left in place the previous moratorium on the condition that it was set to expire in July. In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted to uphold the moratorium at the time, explained that despite his vote in the case, he felt that the CDC exceeded its authority by issuing the moratorium. With Kavanaugh’s vote, the Court’s conservative bloc would have the power to strike down the new moratorium if a challenge came before the Court.