In a recent interview with Bob Vander Plaats of The FAMiLY Leader [sic], Florida Governor Ron DeSantis talked about his ongoing battle with Disney. Well, to DeSantis the battle was won, but there are still two outstanding cases in both state court and federal court where Disney is suing the governor and his Central Florida Tourism Oversight District over actions that Disney says violated their First Amendment rights and contractual development rights. Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the Governor’s words.
As has been the case in the past, DeSantis links his fight with Disney to what is obvious to the casual observer – the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and Disney’s constitutionally protected right to speak out against it.
Disney, which is the most powerful corporation in the history of Florida, they came out whole hog against it. A lot of these old guard Republicans were telling me that somehow Disney, when they call the shots you just got to bend the knee, and I said no way, I’m not going to sit idly by and let people corrupt the innocence of our kids. If we can’t stand up for our kids in those situations then we’re not good for anything, so we fought back against Disney, we had a big battle with them, and we won the battle against Disney.
DeSantis then talked about how his fight with Disney, which included a takeover of the local taxing district previously named the Reedy Creek Improvement District, sent “reverberations across this country”. He talked about how CEOs of major companies pulled back on their public statements because they didn’t want to “end up like Disney”. That is, companies did not make public statements for fear of government retaliation like what DeSantis has done to Walt Disney World in Florida. DeSantis said that he thinks his action against Disney has “helped kind of refocus business in America in a better way”.
I’ll tell you the fact that we were willing to stand up to [Disney], that had reverberations across this country. I think you do have some CEOs that they’re not necessarily bought into this agenda, but it’s the path of least resistance because the media will attack them if they don’t do the agenda, some of these activist employees will attack them, and so they just say you know what bend the knee and move on. Now, they can say well gee I don’t want to end up like Disney people may fight back from the [political] right now. So I think we helped kind of refocus business and America in a better way I think it was going off the rails.
DeSantis concluded his statements about Disney by saying that “we had the most significant action that’s ever been taken against a woke cooperation and we were right to do it, and my state is better off because we did it”.
DeSantis’ recent statements appear to confirm what Disney said in their September 7th complaint in federal court against him – that he has used and will continue to use the might of his government to “chill and continue to chill Disney’s protected speech”. While DeSantis bragged about his fight with Disney sending reverberations throughout the country, the message out of Florida that he seemed to be sending across the country is that disfavored speech gets punished. DeSantis said as much when he stated that CEOs across the country are staying quiet (chilled speech) for fear of ending up like Disney (government retaliation).
In terms of where the federal lawsuit stands, DeSantis and his Oversight District have filed November 9th Motions to Dismiss Disney’s lawsuit against them. The judge in the case, Judge Allen Winsor will now review Disney’s Second Amended Complaint and the Motions to Dismiss filed by DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
In the state-level lawsuit, discovery is ongoing and the judge in the case recently set a summary judgment hearing for March 2024.
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!
The judge should not dismiss the lawsuits. Otherwise it’ll show clear bias. From how I see it, DeSantis basically admitted to government retaliation & overreach & to attempting to silence free speech. He seems to keep taking a page from Trump’s handbook by patting himself on the back & exaggerating what he did because no one else will. There were plenty of CEOs who voiced opposition for what he did to Disney. He & his followers might like to try & gloss over the parts of the series of events that don’t fit the narrative, but the majority of us remember.