Rent control challenge rejected

A federal appeals court Monday rejected a constitutional challenge to rent control in Santa Monica.

A group of landlords had argued that eviction curbs adopted in 2002 were an “irrational response” to the city’s housing difficulties and that the only legitimate policy would have been to limit rent ceilings to poor tenants.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, said it declined “to second-guess Santa Monica’s chosen means of implementing its indisputably legitimate goals.”

The decision by Judges Sidney R. Thomas, Raymond C. Fisher and Ronald M. Gould was unanimous.

-- Gale Holland