As the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) prepares to meet to discuss a legal response to Disney World’s lawsuit against Board members and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, we’re learning more about U.S. District Judge Mark Walker. Judge Walker will be the judge presiding over Disney’s lawsuit against DeSantis, and he is a familiar face for DeSantis’ legal team (via Reuters).
In a preliminary injunction last year against a Florida law known as the “Stop WOKE Act”, Judge Walker started his remarks by referencing the popular Netflix series Stranger Things:
In the popular television series Stranger Things, the “upside down” describes a parallel dimension containing a distorted version of our world… Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down. Normally, the First Amendment bars the state from burdening speech, while private actors may burden speech freely. But in Florida, the First Amendment apparently bars private actors from burdening speech, while the state may burden speech freely
Judge Walker will have nearly 100 years of Disney pop culture references to pull from when he hears the Disney v DeSantis case soon.
In the lawsuit, Disney claims that DeSantis is engaging in “a targeted campaign of government retaliation”, and that DeSantis and the CFTOD Board violated Disney’s First Amendment right to protected speech. Specifically, Disney says that DeSantis used the might of the government in continued retaliatory attacks against the Company after Disney spoke out against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Judge Walker will, once again, be asked to rule on DeSantis’ government violating the First Amendment when he hears arguments from lawyers on the Disney v DeSantis case. Disney asserts a variety of violations by DeSantis in their lawsuit, including violations of the Contracts Clause, the Takings Clause, the Due Process Clause, and multiple First Amendment violations.
In terms of relief, Disney World is asking that the court completely undo Ron DeSantis’ takeover of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and hold existing contracts such as the Development Agreement and Restrictive Covenants as valid.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
Good luck Disney 💞 DeSantis needs to be accountable for his abusing his power’s in office. His law’s are unconditional and disgraceful. Hope the Judge see’s through DeSantis wrongful law’s.😔
Yes because Disney will be held accountable for being a government onto themselves. You are a joke
As a former Floridian, I can tell you firsthand that there are thousands of these taxing districts that ultimately controlled by some company and we see the signs in the highway all the time: “Now entering blah-blah-blah resource management district”
Disney is clearly being singled out among them for not agreeing with the governor, which exactly retaliation for free speech (which if you don’t want free speech to apply to businesses, talk to the Supreme Court re: their Citizens United ruling)
So maybe stick to talking about the nothing you know about, you joke
Yeah, ok. Try wearing a Trump 2024 shirt in disney. Then you’ll really see who’s against 1A.
Move next door to GA.
Censorship is alive and well at Disney and all other woke companies pushing socialism!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
When and if Desantos runs for president in the future I’m pretty sure he’ll not get the votes he’ll be hoping for.
There are so many special/ governing districts in Florida. This fight our governor has levied against Disney is about him saying” I will punish Disney, no out of state company has the right to tell us what to do”. Nor is this about defending Floridians. Because most Floridians don’t want this, we want real governing, we want homeowners insurance we benefit from not the companies and that all Floridians can’t afford, Healthcare, we want to have more rights to speak freely than to carry weapons, in essence Florida wants a governor who governs for all Floridians.
DESANTIS IS A DICTATOR. HE HAS SET FLA. BACK YEARS. WHAT HAPPENED TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH. HE IS A JOKE!!!T
Go Disney it Disney employees who started this whole which they have all the right to so Disney only backing their beliefs
GO DISNEY. SORRY ABOUT MY SPELLING
Good luck Gov. DeSantis. Time to cut Bob Iger’s and the (G)reedy Creek’s head to size. No way to let the mouse run Florida’s affair. It should be the other way around. Disney shouod stick to its core business (entertainment) and not engage in politics!
The problem is this: Disney is a government. That’s the whole problem with the Reedy Creek Improvement District. DeSantis was elected, whether you like him and his policies or not (I do not, for the record) but Disney has no pretense of a democratic process in how it runs Reedy Creek. And so you have an autocratic government (Disney) telling a democratically elected government (the state of Florida under Governor DeSantis) that they will undermine their policy decisions. The response of the governor to strip Disney of its government powers, in this context, is justified.
I don’t like that this is happening with the rights of LGBT kids as the backdrop. But “company towns” are an absolute aberration. If you want to protect trans kids VOTE DESANTIS OUT. But do not allow a corporate hegemony to continue to exist just because you don’t like the government your neighbors elected and you want to spite them.