Chinese residents, real estate firm sue Florida state officials over property ownership ban
- Federal complaint seeks to overturn bill signed by Governor Ron DeSantis prohibiting such purchases by citizens from China and other countries
- ‘All Asian-Americans will feel the stigma and the chilling effect created by this Florida law,’ says lawyer for plaintiffs
Calling the law a violation of equal protection and due process rights under the US Constitution’s 14th amendment, the plaintiffs – Yifan Shen, Zhiming Xu, Xinxi Wang and Multi-Choice Realty LLC – are suing three state officials to stop the law from going into effect and for the legal fees incurred to fight it.
The named defendants are Wilton Simpson, Florida’s agriculture commissioner; Meredith Ivey, acting Florida secretary of economic opportunity; and Patricia Fitzgerald, chair of the Florida Real Estate Commission.
The plaintiffs claimed in the complaint that they “will be forced to cancel purchases of new homes, register their existing properties with the state under threat of severe penalties, and face the loss of significant business. The law … casts a cloud of suspicion over anyone of Chinese descent who seeks to buy property in Florida”.