Disney‘s lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and the state-appointed board overseeing the district encompassing the Walt Disney World Resort was dismissed by a federal judge.
The lawsuit by the House of Mouse had alleged DeSantis unlawfully retaliated against the company, for speaking out against the Parental Rights in Education Act, by restructuring its self-governing district encompassing its Florida resort in 2023.
Judge Allen Winsor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida dismissed the case against DeSantis and acting Secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Meredith Ivey due to lack of standing and also dismissed the case against the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District due to “failure to state a claim.”
“In short, Disney lacks standing to sue the Governor or the Secretary, and its claims against the CFTOD Defendants fail on the merits because ‘when a statute is facially constitutional, a plaintiff cannot bring a free-speech challenge by claiming that the lawmakers who passed it acted with a constitutionally impermissible purpose,’” Winsor said in the order granting the motions to dismiss.
In reaction to the case being dismissed, a Disney spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that it is “determined to press forward with our case” and that it has “serious implications for the rule of law.”
“This is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here. If left unchallenged, this would set a dangerous precedent and give license to states to weaponize their official powers to punish the expression of political viewpoints they disagree with. We are determined to press forward with our case,” a Disney spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
The lawsuit, originally filed in April 2023, came after a year of feuding between Disney and DeSantis, which saw the Florida governor restructure the Reedy Creek Improvement District into the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, governed by a board of his appointees.
The lawsuit had multiple claims but was narrowed late last year to only allege that DeSantis and the CFTOD had infringed on Disney’s free speech rights by allegedly retaliating for comments the company made against the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act in 2022.
After intense pressure from within the company, Disney said after the bill was signed into law that its goal would be to have the legislation “repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”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,” the company said in March 2022.
DeSantis at the time took issue with the company’s proclamation and began work to restructure Disney’s central Florida district shortly after.
“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,” DeSantis said in March 2022. “They do not run this state. They do not control this state.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Disney and the CFTOD are still engaged in a pair of lawsuits levied against each other in state court over the CFTOD board’s governing authority and its action of voiding an agreement the company made with the previous board, which undermined the power of the board.
The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment.
