Several Chinese citizens and a real estate brokerage are appealing a federal district judge’s decision not to issue a preliminary injunction against a new Florida law restricting people from China from owning property in the state.
The plaintiffs filed their appeal on Oct 2 in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the law, Senate Bill 264, is both disruptive and discriminatory. Defendants in the case include Wilton Simpson, the Florida commissioner of agriculture.
“It is currently wreaking havoc on the lives and plans of plaintiffs, four Chinese citizens who reside in Florida and a real estate brokerage firm that principally serves Chinese and Chinese-American clients,” the plaintiffs’ brief states. “The law is disrupting the individual plaintiffs’ purchases of homes, devastating Multi-Choice Realty’s business and roiling Florida’s real estate market, with some lenders now refusing to deal with any Chinese national in Florida.”
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor recently concluded that statements by the Florida governor and state lawmakers about SB 264 showed no "racial animus or any intent to discriminate based on race or where someone was born." But Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Security Project, challenged that contention.
“SB 264 plainly discriminates against many immigrants from China based on their national origin and race, and the state's effort to camouflage that fact in court does not withstand serious scrutiny,” Gorski said in an email to the Florida Record. “We look forward to making our case to the court of appeals.”
The law targets individuals and entities from certain “foreign countries of concern,” according to the Legislature’s summary of the measure, including the People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Syria. The law bars such foreign nationals from owning property within 10 miles of military installations in Florida or critical infrastructure, as well as agricultural land.
But the measure also adds additional restrictions for “persons domiciled in China” who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Such people or entities are barred from acquiring any interest in Florida real estate, according to the law’s provisions, which took effect July 1.
“SB 264 mandates egregious national-origin discrimination, in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and equal protection clause (of the Constitution),” the plaintiffs’ appeal says. “It singles out Chinese people for extraordinary restrictions on the ability to buy a home, even though Congress enacted the FHA to eradicate discriminatory policies in housing.”
The plaintiffs challenge the district court’s conclusion that the new law is “neutral” about national origin issues, maintaining that this conclusion flies in the face of common sense and long-standing precedent.
“Florida’s law squarely conflicts with the federal statutes governing national-security review of real estate transactions, and it interferes with the federal foreign-affairs power in precisely the way this court has already held impermissible,” the brief says.
Moreover, the provisions of the law will cast a shadow over all prospective real estate purchasers of Asian descent, according to the appeal brief.
“The statute also recapitulates the errors and harms of similar state ‘alien land laws’ from more than a century ago that restricted Asians’ rights to hold land in America,” the brief states.
In turn, plaintiffs seek a limited injunction focused only on residential real estate. They also argued that SB 264 won’t achieve the state’s apparent goal of strengthening public safety.