A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a Florida law banning Chinese citizens from buying property.
A federal appeals court has issued a limited temporary block on a Florida law that bans citizens of China from buying property in the state that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said was needed to counteract the "Malign influence" of the Chinese Communist Party in his state.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order on Feb. 1 that temporarily halts enforcement of a law called SB 264, or the Interests of Foreign Countries Act, with respect to two out of five plaintiffs who sued Florida over the law, claiming unconstitutional discrimination.
SB 264 was signed by Mr. DeSantis on May 8, 2023, and it was almost immediately challenged in court by four Chinese citizens residing in Florida and a real estate brokerage firm primarily serving Chinese and Chinese American clients.
The 11th Circuit appeals court decision comes after a Florida district court ruled against the plaintiffs' request to block the law.
What's in the Law? Under the Interests of Foreign Countries Act, any individual who is domiciled in China and who is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States is banned from directly or indirectly buying property or having a controlling interest in property in Florida.
The Lawsuit The property purchase ban was challenged in court by a group of Chinese citizens and a real estate brokerage firm, who sued the state of Florida on May 22, 2023, arguing in their complaint that SB 264 "Imposes discriminatory prohibitions on the ownership and purchase of real property based on race, ethnicity, alienage, and national origin-and imposes especially draconian restrictions on people from China."
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