US judge won't block Florida law barring Chinese citizens from owning homes

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

Aug 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Florida on Thursday declined to block the state's law barring citizens of China and other "countries of concern" from owning homes or land in the state. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee, Florida, said that because the ban is based on citizenship and not race or national origin, it likely does not violate the U.S. Constitution or a law banning housing discrimination.

Winsor, an appointee of Republican then-President Donald Trump, denied a bid by four Chinese nationals to block the law pending the outcome of their lawsuit filed in May. Ashley Gorski, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who represents the plaintiffs, said the group would appeal. The Florida attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Florida's law prohibits individuals who are "domiciled" in China and are not U.S. citizens or green card holders from purchasing buildings or land in the state. It also bars most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia and North Korea from owning property near military installations and infrastructure such as power plants and airports. The law has a narrow exception, allowing holders of non-tourist visas from these countries to own a single property that is at least five miles (8 km) from critical infrastructure.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for U.S. president, said when he signed the law in May that it would help protect Americans from the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. The ACLU claims the law violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process and the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), which prohibits housing discrimination based on race and national origin. The Biden administration filed a brief last month agreeing that the Florida law violates the FHA.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-wont-block-florida-law-barring-chinese-citizens-owning-homes-2023-08-17/

[melm00se]

1. It might run afoul at the appellate level

on discrimination grounds but, for once, I will actually applaud this FL law as it makes sense.

Plenty of other areas, both domestically and internationally, have seen some big time inflationary pressure driven by the influx of foreign money.

So, in this case politicians are acting to protect their constituents from being pushed out of the housing market by international money.

[Schmice3]

4. Nope

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

15. Absolutely agree!!

[FakeNoose]

3. I'm sure Chump Condos in Miami would be happy to launder ... ah... sell them a condo

https://www.miamiresidence.com/sunny-isles-beach/trump-towers.htm

[getagrip_already]

5. Yeah, holding companies and llcs probably skirt this law .......

Just add lawyers. They will find a way.

[CanonRay]

6. Don't a lot of Russians own condos in Florida?

What about them? Russians are OK?

[Turbineguy]

7. Yeah, 'cause Floridians have historically

gravitated toward communism.

[Marthe48]

8. Another farce

Here is a link which lays out land ownership in the U.S. A quick check on other sites seems to support this link: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2023/04/03/foreign-countries-that-own-the-most-u-s-land/

This is more of that p.o.s. from fl. picking on non-white people.

Real estate and housing prices are too high everywhere, and a resistance to paying American workers a living wage that allows them to buy or rent housing is keeping Americans shut out of any chance to have a home of their own.

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

16. "picking on non-white people"

really? this is foreign countries buying up our land for their own purposes to our detriment, and you say it a race-thing?!?

[Marthe48]

19. Canadians own 31% of property in the U.S. that is own by foreigh nationals

Is that p.o.s. barring Canadians from buying property in fl? I didn't see that mentioned in the o.p.

I agree that property abutting military and other sensitive properties should be handled differently, but otherwise, a Chinese buyer should be treated no differently than a Canadian, European, South American, Arabian or African buyer would be.

[CurtEastPoint]

9. Venezuela?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. They seemed to have fixated on Chavez way back when

and he died 10 years ago. Maduro was his successor and their party is the "United Socialist Party of Venezuela'.

"Socialist" = verboten!!!11!!!11!!!!

[NH Ethylene]

10. This law might not be a bad idea.

I am concerned that foreign interests want to buy up our real estate and then make it scarce (and expensive) for citizens of the US to own a home or land.

[Demobrat]

12. We are selling our country out from under us.

There are thousands of homes and condos in CA that sit empty because they are owned by foreign investors who don’t even visit. Meanwhile homelessness explodes.

I wish we had the will to do the same.

[NH Ethylene]

23. As our liveable land mass shrinks from climate change, the remaining land will become priceless.

There is probably a lot I don't know about this, but I think all noncitizens should be banned from buying property here. Perhaps allow leasing or renting, but not outright purchase.

[Demobrat]

26. Canada did it

The ban was initially passed by Parliament in June 2022 before taking effect in January of this year. It prevents commercial enterprises and individuals outside of Canada from buying residential properties in the country.

They are way ahead of us.

[NH Ethylene]

36. I wondered what they are doing in Canada. n/t

[Historic NY]

13. Yet the Russianscome here to have children in Trump condos

Little Moscow

[oldsoftie]

14. Now stop agricultural buys. And ANY critical companies.

It should be a long list.
YOU cant own anything in china without them owning it with you

[angrychair]

17. What is going on

Cannot believe that people here want to deny people equal protection under the law.

That people in this OP support this law greatly offends me.

I guess it's just a bad assumption on my part that Democrats wouldn't be xenophobic or racist.

[moreland01]

20. It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity.

It's more about national security. For example, the Saudi's buying up property in Arizona and using up all of the water for their own (not America's) benefit. And I don't like foreign countries (like China) owning mineral rights in America and then denying our manufacturers the use of those minerals in order to boost sales of Chinese minerals.

Think about the Russians or the Chinese or North Koreans being the sole owners of items/components that we need for manufacturing our defense apparatus. It's a risk to our troops and threatens our security.

I'm mostly concerned about our enemies owning property here. If they have business with us and need to locate people in the states, they can rent a place so they can quickly leave if we are having a tit-for-tat with, say, Putin or Kim Jun Un. It's not racist or xenophobic, it's national security.

[angrychair]

29. No the premise is "national security"

It's a slippery slope is my concern.
You all think it's just going to stop at this your lying to yourselves.
No one in the US woke up one morning and decided "let's do eugenics" or "let's have Japanese interment camps". No, it was a process that started small and built up.

You don't bane sales. You mandate an excise tax on American raw materials being primarily exported (meaning 40% or more of the average of materials gathered monthly, being exported or sold outside the US, so high it's financially crushing to the company doing it)

In that way, you're not barring ownership, you're just making it prohibitive to horde or export US resources for the sole benefit of a foreign entity.

No slippery slope. Just a fair and equitable trade policy.

[rpannier]

31. They're barring Chinese citizens not Chinese-Americans

Given the amount of spying, the overseas Chinese police stations, that guy who was assaulted by the Chinese representative in the UK, I'm gonna be okay with this

[moreland01]

18. I agree with this law.

But I'd also like us to put a stop to corporate ownership of homes that is driving up the prices for all and turning us into a rental nation.

[MichMan]

21. Just tax the proceeds of people selling their homes to corporations at 50 %

That will stop it

[SouthernDem4ever]

24. Great idea

now if we can get rid of the fascists in the house and senate it might have a chance.

[drmeow]

25. Yes! nt

[keithbvadu2]

22. Montana is having the same inflationary pressures from Californians buying cheaper in MT.

Montana is having the same inflationary pressures from Californians buying cheaper in MT.

Ban them or tax them higher?

[Demobrat]

27. If people are buying properties to live in,

that’s a completely different thing from an overseas company using American housing stock as a place to keep their money safe.

These properties are SITTING EMPTY while Americans struggle to stay housed

[rpannier]

32. Not the same

the law in Florida bans Chinese citizens, not Chinese-Americans
The people from California moving to MT are American citizens

[treestar]

33. they are Americans

that is a lot different from foreigners. No one is an official citizen of a state - we can all move to any state we want to.

[AZLD4Candidate]

28. I don't know how to feel about this. Here in China the CCP literally teaches people how

to take advantage of foreign country's laws to get themselves into that country in order to get a foothold there.

They do it in Africa. It is big business setting up tourist visas for pregnant women in their sixth month to go the US with the six months they can stay on a tourist visa to have their child in the US.

My wife went to one just to see. They teach how to break US visa law, how to avoid the INS, how to push the Chinese agenda in the US, and how to get out of trouble when detained. It's all designed to keep a CCP influence in the US and to show Chinese citizens that they are being watched even in other countries.

The CCP uses the same tactics in foreign countries the Nazis did before they invaded. So I don't know how to feel about this knowing what I know about the MO and SOP of the CCP.

[mwb970]

30. Why not just put up "WHITES ONLY" signs at every entrance to the state?

[NH Ethylene]

37. Why not ban ALL noncitizens from owning property in the US?

Foreign nations should not 'own' our property.

[treestar]

34. this should be on reciprocal basis

if a country prohibits us from buying land in it, then the same for that country here.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

38. There's a bit of a problem with this

Foreigners can't own land in Mexico; however, some Mexican nationals still own land that they bought or were granted before certain states were part of the US. I know white people had no problem whatsoever stealing as many of those lands as they could after Guadalupe-Hidalgo, but they didn't get all of them.

So do we simply steal the rest of that land they managed to hold onto--and paid taxes on--for over 175 years?

Land ownership rights can be a whole lot more complicated than they seem on the surface.

[treestar]

39. If you have to look at it like that

it will be impossible.

So I start at which country is which now. Every country exists because someone "stole" land. We can't be guided by judging people who did things 500 years ago. None of us would have done differently because living them was dealing with things then.

If they have owned it that long but still are foreigners, then there could be exceptions for such long term ownership. But now land needs to be alienable - in modern times we need to be able to sell it without a lot of digging into the past for titles.

[Prairie_Seagull]

35. When regular people buy in to how bankers want things done,

chances are most will be on the losing side of the balance sheet.

IMO