Disney lawyers and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Republican) went to federal court on Tuesday where the judge will consider whether to dismiss Disney’s lawsuit accusing DeSantis of illegal political retaliation, as the dispute between the Florida government and Disney over the special district overseeing Walt Disney World has been ongoing for more than a year since it began.
Key Facts
Federal Judge Alan Windsor will hold a hearing on Tuesday to consider DeSantis’s requests and the board he appointed to control the special district of Walt Disney World, now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Disney called out DeSantis and his appointed board in April, arguing that the governor violated the company’s First Amendment rights by retaliating against it for criticizing the Parental Rights in Education law, which critics refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
What to Watch For
It’s unclear when the court will issue a ruling on DeSantis’s and the board’s requests to dismiss Disney’s federal lawsuit against them, which accuses the government of carrying out a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against the company that “threatens Disney’s business operations and puts its economic future in the region at risk and violates its constitutional rights.” Windsor is a Trump appointee and may be sympathetic to the governor and his appointees, though it remains unknown how the judge will rule. It is also unclear when the case will go to trial if it is not dismissed, as DeSantis seeks to set a trial date after the elections in August 2025, while Disney wants the trial to begin in July 2024. If Disney wins its lawsuit, the company is asking the court to return the special district to its status before DeSantis took control, where Disney could choose who served on the board as the majority owner of the district. It is also likely that the state lawsuit will not be resolved anytime soon, as the next hearing in the case – to consider a motion regarding aspects of the case before it goes to trial – is not scheduled until March 2024.
Key Critics
DeSantis’s lawyers argue that Disney’s prior control of the special district is a “clear case” of corporate takeover of government “as this court would see it,” and they claim in the governor’s motion to dismiss the company’s lawsuit that “Disney was given the right to run the show itself.” The governor seeks to dismiss the case against him because he claims Disney lacks standing to sue him, as it was the legislature that passed the law restructuring the special district board, and he merely signed it. Members of the board appointed by DeSantis also seek to dismiss the case, noting that Disney’s allegations that the state violated its First Amendment rights are “baseless” and that a theme park owner “is not entitled to exercise First Amendment rights in the governance structure of its choosing in the area where it is located.”
The Big Number
$40.3 billion. This is the amount contributed by Walt Disney World to Florida’s economy in the 2022 fiscal year, according to a study conducted by Oxford Economics in collaboration with Disney and released in November. Disney highlighted its importance to Florida on the blog of its Parks Division when the study was published – as part of its resistance to DeSantis’s attacks on the company – also noting that the company’s presence in Florida generates over 250,000 jobs, and that one in every 32 jobs in Florida can “be attributed to Disney.”
Major Background
The special district overseeing Walt Disney World was created before the amusement park opened to the public in 1971, essentially functioning as a local government handling infrastructure such as water systems, road improvements, building permits, emergency services, and waste collection. Reedy Creek overseen the property in Florida without any issues until last year when Disney stated that the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida “should never have been” enacted and that “the company’s goal as a corporation is to repeal this law through the legislature or nullify it in the courts.” DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature responded with legislation that completely abolishes the special district, then reversed course and passed a law in February that preserves the district but only renames it and reconstitutes the board to consist of the governor’s appointees. After weeks in office, the board appointed by DeSantis discovered that Disney had made a deal with the previous board granting Disney broad control over the special district through measures such as allowing it to build projects without district approval, selling development rights to other landowners, and vetoing the appearance of buildings overseen by the special district as long as they were on Disney property. The board and DeSantis vowed to retaliate against Disney for this arrangement, with DeSantis holding a press conference to announce additional measures against the company, and the board pledging that “nothing is off the table” in his retaliation against Disney. As a result, DeSantis’s appointees voted in April to declare the development agreement “null and void,” prompting Disney to file its lawsuit just minutes later.
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