[Edward64]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

There is nothing in the bill that I saw that says you can fit into categories 1,2,3, or 5 and be allowed to purchase and/or own real property if you are a U.S. citizen. The only distinction in this bill is category 4 that allows for US citizens/permanent residents that live in China. Does the fact that this individual is U.S. citizen and lives in China override the fact that he or she works for a company whose primary place of business is in China? It seems clear that a Chinese national who is a member of the CCP and has businesses in China and the U.S. cannot buy property here. Can his Canadian born wife that has American citizenship make those purchases instead? I don't know that for sure. I would lean to saying no because she would fit into the third category despite her American citizenship but she also is not of Chinese decent. That would be a pretty big loophole if she could.

Here is the link to the bill if you want to take a look.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bil...illText/er/PDF

I actually did look through the pdf earlier and I'll be the first to admit that, not being an attorney, there's too much legalese in there (e.g. more than in the "Don't Say Gay bill") and know there are nuances that I cannot discuss intelligently about. I didn't understand near all of it (e.g. WTF is "de minimus indirect interest").

However, to bring it into layman's terms, I looked at:

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bil...ab=BillHistory (see View Bill Summary to the left)

With respect to conveyances of real property in this state, the bill generally:

• Prohibits foreign principals from owning or acquiring agricultural land in the state.
• Prohibits foreign principals from owning or acquiring any interest in real property within 10 miles of any military installation or critical infrastructure in the state.
• Prohibits China, Chinese Communist Party or other Chinese political party officials or members, Chinese business organizations, and persons domiciled in China, but who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents of the U.S., from purchasing or acquiring any interest in real property in the state.
• Provides limited exceptions from the ownership restrictions for the purchase of one residential property that is not on or within 5 miles of any military installation in the state.

You can see it talks about "foreign principals" and third bullet is pretty clear it is talking about non-citizens/PR.

In addition, I looked at an Axios article (which I believe is pretty reputable), which states below

Just a moment...

Driving the news: The four plaintiffs argue in a lawsuit filed Monday that the legislation restricting people from China and six other countries from buying homes and land in the state is both unconstitutional and in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

The law, SB 264, "imposes especially draconian restrictions on people from China," as people from this country who aren't U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents will be barred from owning Florida property altogether, per the lawsuit.

The article also references ACLU and Asian American Legal Defense Fund getting involved. There is no mention that they believe this proposal applies to US Citizens/PR.

So in summary - if your contention still is this applies to US citizens/PR of Chinese descent, I will avoid discussing this further as it's central to my POV that it does not. And I cannot see a way to convince you otherwise. If you are right, I agree this proposal is really bad and in all likelihood IMO, the courts will overturn it (e.g. courts are good to finetune vagaries in a bill, we are a lawsuit happy country).

However, if we can agree this does not apply to US citizens/PR, I'll be glad to continue the discussion.