The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Florida’s 2023 law banning the sale of land to foreign interests, a promising sign for a similar Texas law. Florida may now continue enforcing the ban without restriction.
According to Wednesday’s ruling, Florida’s ban does not violate federal law or discriminate against Asian individuals. The court ruled that Plaintiffs do not have standing to challenge the purchase restriction because they are not “domiciled” in China—meaning they do not treat China as their permanent home.
A similar Texas law known as Senate Bill 17—dubbed the “Texas Foreign Land Ban”—took effect on September 1.
As previously reported, a lawsuit challenging SB 17 is currently before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit was brought by three Chinese nationals who are in the U.S. on visas.
SB 17’s language also states that the land ban applies to “an individual who is domiciled in a designated country,” including China. The case has largely centered around interpretation of the word “domiciled.”
A federal district court in Houston agreed with Attorney General Ken Paxton that “domiciled” in SB 17 is defined to mean “having established a place as an individual’s true, fixed, and permanent home and principal residence to which the individual intends to return whenever absent.”
Plaintiffs appealed this interpretation to the Fifth Circuit, where the case currently stands. The state is blocked from enforcing the law against the Plaintiffs for the time being.
Advocates for SB 17 are optimistic following the Eleventh Circuit’s recent ruling, considering they adopted the same definition as it applied to Florida’s law.
Texas State Rep. Cole Hefner (R–Mount Pleasant)—who introduced SB 17 in the House—took to X to explain the significance of the Eleventh Court’s decision.
“A federal appeals court upheld Florida’s law cracking down on foreign adversaries buying land near critical infrastructure and military bases,” said Hefner. “This is encouraging for Texas, as it supports the same legal foundation behind the work we passed in Senate Bill 17 this session.”
“Protecting our land, our bases, and our communities from foreign influence is common sense. I’m proud to have helped get SB 17 across the finish line, and this ruling is another strong sign that states have the right to defend themselves,” Hefner continued. “Texas will continue putting our safety and sovereignty first.”
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