(José Niño, Headline USA) Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has found no state or federal laws violated by Return to the Land, a whites-only community in the Ozark hills, after a preliminary investigation, per a report by KNWA Fayetteville.
Return to the Land, a community founded in the Ozark hills in late 2023, operates as a private association for people of European ancestry and screens out applicants who are not white, Christian, or straight.
The group’s structure—selling ownership as LLC shares tied to individual land plots—was designed to function outside the reach of traditional housing discrimination laws.
When the community drew media and activist attention in the summer of 2025, Griffin condemned its explicit racial criteria and initiated a legal review, promising to investigate possible violations. Griffin declared that “racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society.”
But Griffin’s office now says that, at least for the time being, “we have not seen anything that would indicate any state or federal laws have been broken.”
As Headline USA previously reported, Return to the Land’s founders advertised their enclave as a space for people who hold traditional views and are of European extraction. They vet potential members with written applications and interviews to confirm their ancestry—practices that legal scholars and civil rights groups deem as clear attempts to circumvent federal housing laws through the group’s designation as a Private Members Association.
Because the Fair Housing Act primarily regulates public offerings of housing, RTTL claims an exemption as a members-only group.
Griffin’s office, after reviewing available evidence, agreed that the community’s legal posture currently protects it from both state and federal prosecution.
Despite the attorney general’s conclusion that no laws have been broken, the decision is not the final word. Griffin described the review as “preliminary,” leaving open the possibility of future action if new facts emerge or if the group’s activities change.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
