Fore Note: Below is a story that reports that Walton Tennessee is a party to a lawsuit against the state for outlawing certain foreign ownership of Tennessee property. Walton Tennessee is the development company who bought the 400 acres in Hotchkiss Valley.

Law preventing some foreign entities from owning Tennessee land challenged
 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Three people are suing Tennessee government officials over a law that forbids some foreign individuals and entities from owning land in Tennessee.
The law in question prevents people, businesses and other groups residing in certain foreign countries considered to be adversarial to the United States, from owning land in Tennessee. If they already own that land, the law forces them to divest themselves of it.

This law took effect Wednesday January 1.
 

Stephen Misch, Jason Vance, Alessandro Silvestroni, and the company Walton Tennessee, LLC are suing Tennessee officials Jonathan Skrmetti, Tre Hargett and Charlie Hatcher.
This law was sparked over concerns of Chinese entities buying land in Tennessee. Tennessee Representative Jason Zachary said that Walton Tennessee LLC is a “shell company.”

Loudon County Mayor Buddy Bradshaw spoke about a particular section of land owned by Walton Tennessee: “I think the biggest concern for Loudon County, of course, is our location to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There’s also a dedicated hardline that runs through that property from north to south all the way into Washington D.C. and into New York, the banking district, and so these lands are valuable. Certainly we’re no friend of China and China is no friend of ours.”
 
Walton Tennessee said this law criminalizes their business model.
In their lawsuit, they allege that the new rules “unconstitutionally create criminal liability without due process, criminalize previously lawful behavior, and ban owning an interest in agricultural and/or non-agricultural land based on national origin.”
 

The lawsuit also alleges that certain parts the law are “unconstitutionally vague,” and that it “unconstitutionally require[s] Prohibited Owners to incriminate themselves” and “unconstitutionally permits the State to take land through escheatment without just compensation.”

The lawsuit also said that the new law is “impliedly preempted… by federal law.”