Disney sues Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claiming 'retaliation' : NPR
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
April 26, 20231:52 PM ET
By
Greg Allen
MIAMI — The Walt Disney Company has filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials. Disney accuses DeSantis with orchestrating a "campaign of government retaliation" against the company and violating its protected speech.
It's the latest action in a feud that began more than a year ago when Disney's former CEO said he'd work to overturn a law banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the schools. The law, the "Parental Rights in Education Act," is called "Don't Say Gay" by critics.
At DeSantis' urging, Republican lawmakers passed a bill that stripped Disney of its self-governing authority. But before the law took effect, Disney signed a deal with its outgoing board allowing it to retain development rights on the 40-square mile district. It also included covenants that give Disney final say on any alterations to the property.
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DeSantis wants to end Disney World's special status in Florida
At a meeting Wednesday near Orlando, DeSantis' handpicked board voted to invalidate that agreement. Moments later, Disney filed a 77-page lawsuit in federal court, charging DeSantis and other officials with violations of the contracts clause, the takings clause, due process and its First Amendment right to protected speech. In its lawsuit, Disney says, "This government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional." The company is asking a federal judge to declare the board's action "unlawful and unenforceable."
Before voting to invalidate Disney's development deal, the district board heard a lengthy presentation from its lawyers detailing what they said were procedural missteps made by Disney's lawyers that, in their view, rendered it "void and unenforceable." They said all parties had not received proper notice of the vote on the agreement and that it should have also been approved by the district's two cities. Disney maintains proper notices were sent out and that the development deal was approved in an open meeting in compliance with Florida law.
Before voting to strike down Disney's development deal, the new district board heard from a number of independent business owners who have restaurants and retail shops at Disney properties. Several said they were concerned new regulations and taxes could raise their costs and make their businesses unprofitable. Gov. DeSantis has talked about raising taxes and putting toll roads in the district. He's also discussed using some of the land for additional development and even a new prison. Board chairman Martin Garcia told business owners their taxes would be going up, in part to pay for legal fees related to the DeSantis' dispute with Disney.
Debra Mcdonald, a resident of Celebration, a community originally built by Disney that is adjacent to the theme park told the board that, because of the ongoing feud, "many in our community are afraid." McDonald said, "It has hurt us deeply. It's not just between the Governor and Disney. It affects everyone around him."
In response to the lawsuit, DeSantis' communications director Taryn Fenske said, "We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state. This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law."
DeSantis is currently overseas on an international trade mission.
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Mickey vs DeSantis.
Within hours of the DeSantis board trying to invalidate the Disney contract, Disney filed the suit which is 77 pages long. It would seem that once again they have anticipated the moves by DeSantis.
There are over 1,000 special districts in Florida and some huge entertainment companies have them, namely Universal and SeaWorld (SeaWorld parks in Tampa are not in a special district).
Yeah. Kinda makes it hard to claim you only went after Disney because you don’t think companies should have that kind of control. Disney should have no problem proving they are the victim of unequal treatment under the law as retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Best of all, Disney can always call DeSantis up to testify on Disney's behalf. After all, DeSantis has admitted he is doing it to punish Disney numerous times in front of cameras. He has stated it in Op-Eds that he has written. AND he even stated it in his own book.
BREAKING NEWS:
From Broke Back Mountain!
"De Santis on his KNEES, says that he will 'do anyone for VOTES', in his desperate bid to get on the Re-Puritan Ticket, including whatever is necessary in order to get the Hell out of FLA.!"
to get the Hell out of FLA.!"
Even that global warming denier knows that Florida is due for destruction.
Why would Disney want to stay?
Read that they were considering a move to Georgia.
I wrote a new song for Disney. "It's a Wet world after all."
Meanwhile, Trump, Chris Christie, Gruters and Steube have called for DeSantis to desist
and stay out of private business practices, especially Disney.
Kudos to the Disney lawyers.
I thought republicans were all about big business.
more like blind loyalty trumps everything...
They are all about GREED above all else.
that's certainly what they push out of their major orifices...
They also claim to be fiscally responsible and Constitutional defenders. However if you ignore their words, and just look at their actions, you get a completely different understanding.
not one of them can walk the walk...
Not one of them even tries...
whatever rwnj fascists claim, the opposite is more likely to be true.
There are no rwnj fascists here.
If there are, name them.
Not to mention the degree of projection that they use.
can you name any here?
Well, I hope that DeSantis et.al., get their mouse handed to them.
Don't mess with the Mouse.
no wonder he's an absentee governor...
He is in Israel currently and said in a speech there:
I wonder why he didn't do some praying to stop Hurricane Ian which was the costliest hurricane to hit Florida and one of the deadliest.
he was probably too busy granting hurricane zone building code variances for his pals...
Such a pointless waste of time and money.
Well, not if you are trying to be known as homophobe in chief
From the article:
I'm sure that is what business owners want to hear.
hey usually its Democrats kvetching about them not paying their fair share!
why the sudden change?
never mind, I already know!
That's an understatement. If the taxpayers & businesses have to foot the bill, hopefully they'll be incensed enough to not support DeSantis again.
No, REPUBLICANS wasting time & money?
A couple days of fawning press coverage and silence when the case is inevitably dismissed.
On what grounds?
... being woke.
lol
Is that a legal opinion or just a cheesehead opinion?
what cheese goes best with mackerel?
Limburger.
omg
I doubt there will be silence, but I do expect it to be dismissed - right after Florida settles with Disney and gives them everything they want.
Lol. Sure. Nothing says "we've got a great case" than forum shopping for a known anti DeSantis judge and using Lochner era cases as the basis of your argument.
I'm sure the Court of Appeals will be more than happy to resurrect a reviled doctrine that's been junk for almost 100 years to protect Disney.
I guess I can see why Disney would want to bring back the vehicle to allow child labor to be exploited, but I doubt its going to play well.
When you're living in a glass house it's best not to throw stones. Whining about judge shopping is hilarious coming from the right...Does the ban on the abortion pill ring a bell for you? In case you forgot it's District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.
I'm sure that they will considering that both DeSantis and members of his appointed board and Republican legislators have said publicly that they are going to punish Disney for their actions on the original bill that started this whole thing.
So, there are known 'anti-DeSantis' judges to choose from?
Yeah, they're known as the "honest" judges.
Locking the article until I'm available to moderate it again.
boo
OK, the article is open again.
yay
With every passing day and new development, this becomes more and more embarassing for DeSantis and the state of Florida.
It does seem like Disney has outmaneuvered him at every stage of this. Rather than showing a strong leadership he seems to be becoming a bit unhinged over this.
He has to make inroads with the Trump base someway.
... uh, that's wussolini.
It certainly is and to make it even a bit more embarrassing for DeSantis are the threats he has made to punish Disney and they are on tape and in print. Also, his comments that he would raise taxes on Disney who paid $780 million in taxes to the state of Florida in 2021, and then DeSantis hand picked board member said this to the small business owners that operate on Disney property and in the surrounding area: Board chairman Martin Garcia told business owners their taxes would be going up, in part to pay for legal fees related to the DeSantis' dispute with Disney.
This is almost a lock for Disney. DeSantis could have left well enough alone after getting handed his ass when the old board signed their "deal", but he had to double down on stupid in a press conference. I don't see a scenario where this comes out well for him. This and the thousands of school kids walking out of classes yesterday should be a wake up call to the Republican Legislator that if they keep it up they could be looking for new jobs.
There has also been some backlash from Republican donors and legislators in Florida. But, it seems that this ridiculous culture war with Disney may turn out to be a really big loser for him and the Republican party in FL. and it doesn't look like he'll back down, in fact it seems that he put himself in a position where he can't admit defeat and stop the BS. I guess that is what happens when a bully is shown up for what he is.
Mr G and I were talking about this last night over dinner. He's a republican and likes DeSantis but even says this is bad for him. For one thing, he punished Disney because a First Amendment issue. We both hope he loses and I want the judge to take his law license away from him. It just proves he's a fucking tyrant and not worthy to be our POTUS
My ancient very liberal Mom had a close friendship with an arch conservative. I once asked how she tolerated him. She said, "Yes, he is a throwback and a male chauvinist pig, but he is my caveman"...
They parted ways over Donald Trump. He went all in for QAnon and The Big Lie, got a bad case of elder rage and then died!
Yes. I was reading that too. The last one because DeSantis never returned his phone calls?
I hadn't see that one, one would think that if a big donor calls you you would return the call.
bummer. not.
In 1997 the Baptist Church called for a boycott of Disney and all its subsidiaries because GASP, Disney was affording the LBGT people partners health benefits. The boycott lasted eight years and accomplished nothing and Disney did not back down. DeSantis might make note of that.
Once again the Baptists have entered the fray, they are now backing DeSantis and his fight with Disney.
It did accomplish one thing: it demonstrated how bigoted and hateful the Baptist Church is.
And now they're doubling down on the hate.
So it was absolutely no more successful than the boycott of Chick Fil A then.
Boycotts rarely are successful.
Of course, Chick Fil A may feel differently--they went on to become the number one chicken seller in the world after the boycott!
those f'n thumpers should probably try boycotting their members that get caught up in sex scandals...
Absolutely hilarious that historically leftists absolutely hate corporate welfare and screech at pretty much every business, but, here we have a story where a corporation is receiving essentially a form of welfare form Florida citizens, and ....gasp....the governor that is trying to stop that welfare is a republican that MIGHT run for president, and probably beat Biden if he did.......and now to most leftists....corporate welfare is good.
Can't make this crap, up.
What corporate welfare is DeSantis trying to stop that Disney gets? The law passed did not increase Disney taxes in any way and in fact at the 11th hour DeSantis and the legislature changed their minds about dissolving Reedy Creek since it would have dumped over $1 billion in bond debt on the taxpayers of Orange and Osceola counties that currently Disney is responsible for.
What's absolutely hilarious is the attempts by populist non-conservative to distort the issue into something its not when they have been corrected multiple times.
So...Disney taxes itself to provide services and that's called corporate welfare????
Yup, it's kind of like the new math.
New math...common core math....galactic math....can we just go back to how the ancient Muslims did it?
It's abacas time.
for republicans, that means taking off their shoes and socks...
I see the new board has voted today to sue Disney. I wonder if this will make it easier for Disney to combine both cases and move it to federal court?
That would make it interesting. I saw where U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Fitzpatrick recused himself.
That is the judge that one partisan member said that was anti DeSantis and Disney went judge shopping for.
Seems once again he had no idea of what he was talking about.
all the rwnj scum headed towards the GOP primaries are praying that trump is taken out by the DOJ...
oops, wrong thread...
I was mistakenly under the impression the Disney lawsuit was filed in state court hoping they could file to have it moved later. The new lawsuit by the board has been filed in state court so now I'm wondering if Disney can have them both litigated at the same time in the same court. I don't know how that works, but I did find this (it's a Disney Tourism blog page so I'll take it with a grain of salt)
It definitely is going to get much more interesting.
Moms for Liberty had eight Nora Roberts books banned in the Martin County School district. This is after twenty books by Jodi Picoult were banned as they were considered pornographic by the Bastions of liberty.
I doubt if they would know Liberty if it hit them in the head.
funny how they have to write pretzel legislation that excludes the bible from being banned...
maybe if it bit them in the ass?
nah...
swing harder...
destankis is a mental lightweight...
from your link
This tactic was tried back in 1930's Germany.
fascism is in destankis's heritage...
Exactly, he’s of Italian American heritage on both sides and his father installed Nielsen TV ratings box’s to help control American mass media.
Good call, devangelical.
Well, he is showing that he can't match wits with a mouse.
some people think they see nazis or fascists everywhere.
its really quite funny!
so he hates trans people, but likes women with mustaches...
oh, the irony.
... especially to fascists and nazis.
surprising, since destankis has the same depth and substance as a cartoon drawing of mickey.
I’ve been to Italy many times and seen many beautiful woman. I don’t remember mustaches.