Why Disney is suing Ron DeSantis
Jack Birle
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Disney filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Wednesday, further escalating a lengthy battle between the state’s chief executive and the state’s largest single-site employer.
The Florida governor and the entertainment giant have been trading jabs at each other for more than a year. The feud stems back to the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act.
DISNEY LAWSUIT POINTS TO DESANTIS BOOK AND OP-EDS AS EVIDENCE OF RETALIATION
The lawsuit alleges the state violated Disney’s First Amendment right to free speech, the contract and takings clauses in the U.S. Constitution, and the company’s 14th Amendment right to due process.
The company alleges in its lawsuit that DeSantis and other state officials pursued a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”
DeSantis began to go after Disney shortly after the company issued a statement in March 2022. It said the company wanted the Parental Rights in Education bill “repealed” or “struck down in the courts.”
“Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country,” the company said in a statement the day the bill was signed.
The bill, which was signed on March 28, 2022, barred kindergarten through third grade from learning about sexual orientation and gender identity and forbade schools from withholding information from parents about students’ health and well-being. The bill was dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by opponents.
The day after Disney released the statement, DeSantis said the company’s vow to get the law repealed had crossed the line and was “fundamentally dishonest.”
“I think one was fundamentally dishonest, but two, I think that crossed the line. This state is governed by the interests of the people of the state of Florida. It is not based on the demands of California corporate executives. They do not run this state. They do not control this state,” DeSantis said.
Shortly after DeSantis vowed the company had “crossed the line,” he began to work with the legislature to restructure Disney’s central Florida district, which encompasses the Walt Disney World Resort.
The first piece of legislation, signed in April 2022, stripped away the special district, and a second piece of legislation, signed in February 2023, established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District as a successor to the former Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new district would now be governed by a governor-appointed board, giving the state more oversight over Disney’s resort.
Disney had remained quiet as DeSantis bashed the company and restructured its central Florida district, but the company did work to undermine the takeover. The same day the Florida House passed the bill to restructure the district, Feb. 8, 2023, the Disney-backed board of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and Disney instituted an agreement that would undermine the legislation and effectively allow Disney to retain its control over the district.
The agreement essentially made it so the governing board of the district couldn’t make most changes without permission from Disney. The agreement also stipulated that it “shall continue until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England, living as of the date of this declaration.”
The new board discovered the agreement nearly a month after being appointed and vowed legal action to void it. Disney defended the agreement, saying it was “appropriate” and that all agreements were discussed in open forums.
“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” Disney said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
DeSantis’s office backed the new board’s efforts to void the agreement and said that “all legislative options are back on the table,” in light of the agreement.
On April 17, 2023, DeSantis said the board should be able to use one of the “plethora of legal infirmities” in the agreement to void it but also said the legislature would get involved as “a strong one-two punch.” Later that week, legislators in the Florida Senate introduced an amendment to void the agreement, and the board of the district announced its findings that the agreement was void based on a violation of the state’s sunshine laws.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board then unanimously approved a resolution declaring the agreement void ab initio, meaning it is void from the beginning.
Shortly after the vote, Disney filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The lawsuit cited the resolution to void the agreement as the “latest strike” in the state’s string of “retaliatory” and “unconstitutional” actions.
“Today’s action is the latest strike: At the governor’s bidding, the state’s oversight board has purported to ‘void’ publicly noticed and duly agreed development contracts, which had laid the foundation for billions of Disney’s investment dollars and thousands of jobs,” according to the lawsuit. “This government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional.”
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“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,” Taryn Fenske, communications director for the governor, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “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’s lengthy feud with the House of Mouse has garnered criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, but the Florida governor has vowed to fight the lawsuit, saying he is “confident” the law is on his side.