new law that bans citizens of China and some other countries from purchasing property in large swaths of Florida can be enforced while being challenged in court, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Allen Winsor denied the American Civil Liberties Union’s request to block the state law as it seeks to overturn it. The group is representing Chinese citizens living in Florida.
Florida has no place in deciding “national security issues” in who to sell property to near military bases. That is absolutely a federal prerogative. Federalist society Trump judge over-reach here. (Just so my politics don’t get too confused though: I’m a socialist and would actually support taking this property from rent seeking landlords.)
That would be an excellent point if it were federally owned land
This isn’t just regulating interstate commerce. It’s regulating international commerce, based on countries that are a “threat” and centered around federal military land.
It’s about not lettihg the housing market get wrecked any worse than it already is.
That’s explicitly not what the law is about, nor what they’re arguing to the judge. There’s a reason why selling to Chinese nationals has a larger penalty and it’s not to protect the housing market. The injunction should’ve been granted just because it creates real measurable harm due to racism, independent to the fact that it is a law that is blatantly out of Florida’s scope.