In recent legislation passed in Florida, Chinese citizens would be prohibited from owning land in Florida and the Biden administration has decided to take them to court claiming the law is unconstitutional.
Biden’s DOJ has filed a “statement of interest” regarding the Shen v. Simpson case, which is taking place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and seeks to find the law unconstitutional. The DOJ claims that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment and the Fair Housing Act which makes using someone’s race or ethnicity illegal when buying or selling property.
“These unlawful provisions will cause serious harm to people simply because of their national origin, contravene federal civil rights laws, undermine constitutional rights, and will not advance the State’s purported goal of increasing public safety,” wrote the DOJ.
In response to the DOJ’s court filing, Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted, “While the Biden-Garland DOJ sides with Communist China, I side with the American people.”
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in May which would force them to cancel any plans on purchasing property and possibly lose their businesses. Many groups have taken interest in the case and decided to represent them such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Senior staff attorney, Ashley Gorski, for the ACLU’s National Security Project recently wrote, “Florida’s discriminatory property law is unfair, unjustified, and unconstitutional. Everyone in the United States is entitled to equal protection under our laws, including citizens of other countries. If SB 264 goes into effect, it will profoundly harm our clients and countless other immigrants in Florida.”
The Florida law specifically disallows Chinese citizens “domiciled” in China from owning property or agricultural land and includes restricting land purchases anywhere within 10 miles of a “military installation or critical infrastructure facility” in Florida. The other “countries of concern” in the law include Russia, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. The Florida law doesn’t apply to any U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is running for President in 2024 and continued to boast that citizens of these “countries of concern” are in his words “not in the best interests of Florida to have the Chinese Communist Party owning farmland, owning land close to military bases.”
