“This prohibition blatantly violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection against discrimination,” Judge Nancy Abudu wrote.
A federal appeals court blocked a controversial Florida law restricting Chinese citizens from buying land from being enforced against two people who sued the state, with one judge saying the law “blatantly violates” protections against discrimination.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Thursday said the Chinese immigrant plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, have shown a “substantial likelihood of success” in proving their case against the 2023 state law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
One of the appeals court judges, Nancy Abudu, a former civil rights lawyer appointed by President Joe Biden, said the anti-Chinese statements of Florida officials about the legislation “establish that the law is a blanket ban against Chinese non-citizens from purchasing land within the state.”
“This prohibition blatantly violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection against discrimination,” Abudu wrote.
It’s because it targets Chinese people in particular (and, by extension , anyone who “looks” Chinese). It says that Chinese people need to be here “lawfully” and “domiciled” in Florida in order to buy property over a certain amount. But who gets to decide the burden of sufficient proof?
For that matter, who gets to decide who is “Chinese” enough for this provision? Just recently Sen. Cotton refused to give up on the idea that a tech executive from Singapore was somehow a puppet of the Chinese Government. This act is really a way for Florida officials (who may not be as smart as Sen. Cotton, after all) to discriminate against anyone who looks remotely Chinese. Even people who were born here, have no heritage from China, and have never been to China will need to bring their passport to closing to prove they’re not covered by this, if they look vaguely Asian. (Although I bet Saudis won’t get interrogated, even if they are technically Asian and their government is just as repressive as China’s.)
If you want to ban foreign investment in real estate in the US, do it for everyone. Don’t ban certain groups and not others.
That’s what I’m saying. I don’t care if you’re Chinese, German, Brazilian or fucking Martian. US land should not be titled to anyone but US citizens. Likewise corporations should be banned from owning anything other than commercial zoned property. Both of these things should be federal law. This should in no way be considered a state’s matter.
Everything is for sale here