Legal Defence Fund has filed a lawsuit against Return to the Land, a Whites-only organisation, for discriminating against Blacks and other races to establish a low-cost housing settlement for only White people.
Reliance Colfax was the initial plaintiff before the Defence Fund joined the suit instituted on behalf of Michelle Walker who accused RTTL of denying her the sale of land due to her Jewish background and marriage to a Black man that produced bi-racial children.
Ms Walker said she was asked a series of questions that felt too personal and irrelevant to her land purchase application including questions about her ancestry, religion and those of her husband and children.
Other questions asked for her stance on immigration, segregation and “transgenderism”, all of which she answered only to be blocked from buying the land after being labelled as “not an ideal fit” for the settlement.
The suit further claimed RTTL believed that White people were superior to other races as she sought punitive damages against the group.
Eric Orwoll, president of RTTL, said the settlement was meant to host persons who identified with European heritage and ancestry asserting that Whites are gradually becoming the minority in modern-day America, according to his CNN interview in August 2025.
“You have to be someone who identifies with your European heritage and ancestry. You have to celebrate traditional European values and we get those values from our religious documents within Christianity, within Norse paganism,” Mr Orwoll told CNN at the time. “We do view Jewish origins as having their roots in the Near East, and so they wouldn’t fall under the category of European heritage.”
Mr Orwoll insisted that his views were not illegal given his right to freedom of association. He said he could do as he pleased and associate with whomever on the land he owned.
“If I was a private individual and I owned this much land, I could do anything I wanted with it, keep anyone out who I wanted,” he told CNN. “We’re a group of people. It’s our private land together. You’re allowed to freely associate in this country.”
“Return to the Land’s actions constitute blatant and brazen violations of long-standing federal and state fair housing laws,” said Reed Colfax, co-managing partner at Relman Colfax.
