Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Blocks Florida law that Discriminates based on National Origin

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily halted the enforcement of an unconstitutional Florida law, known as SB 264, against two Chinese immigrants who have challenged the statute in court. SB 264 bans many Chinese immigrants, including people here as professors, students, employees, and scientists, from buying a home in large swaths of the state. This decision comes after a Florida district court ruled against the plaintiffs’ motion to preliminarily block the law while the case proceeded.

Judge Nancy Abudu acknowledged that “SB 264 was enacted for the specific purpose of targeting people of Chinese descent.” Judge Abudu concluded that the plaintiffs have shown a substantial likelihood that statute also violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. In doing so, Judge Abudu excoriated the District Court’s fraught reliance on the widely discredited century-old Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197 (1923), case, determining that it “may have had support in 1923, but it is now 2024” and such laws are now subject to strict scrutiny. 

Florida’s ban violates the U.S. Constitution by specifically targeting Chinese citizens, said Bethany Li, legal director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs.