TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — In yet another win against woke ideology in the Sunshine State, a federal judge has thrown out entertainment giant Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his revocation of special privileges for the company’s Florida resort.
Disney, which for years has been infusing its mainstream children’s and family entertainment offerings with pro-LGBT messages and other left-wing themes, took a hardline stance in March 2022 against Florida’s proposed Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibited a range of sexually-related content in K-3 education and guaranteed parental notification for any changes that could affect their child’s physical, emotional, or mental well-being. The law passed anyway (and was later expanded to all grade levels), and DeSantis then eliminated the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the self-governing “special district” status for Disney’s Florida theme park. This special status had exempted the park from various state regulations and conferred other financial benefits, effectively allowing Disney to govern itself for decades.
Disney sued the state, though in December the company was forced to withdraw four of its five complaints concerning the validity of contracts that were voided by the new oversight board but made before DeSantis instituted its replacement, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD).
This week, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, dismissed the entire federal lawsuit, finding that Disney lacked standing to have brought the suit, that Disney was “not the district’s only landowner, and other landowners within the district are affected by the same laws,” that “the statute did ‘not implicate any constitutionally protected conduct,’” and that Disney “has not alleged any specific injury from any board action.”
“[C]ourts shouldn’t look to a law’s legislative history to find an illegitimate motivation for an otherwise constitutional statute,” Winsor declared. “Because that is what Disney seeks here, its claim fails as a matter of law.”
“As stated by Governor DeSantis when he signed HB 9-B, the Corporate Kingdom is over,” said DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern in response to the decision. “The days of Disney controlling its own government and being placed above the law are long gone. The federal court’s decision made it clear that Governor DeSantis was correct: Disney is still just one of many corporations in the state, and they do not have a right to their own special government. In short — as long predicted, case dismissed.
READ: Disney used bribes to control special tax district abolished by DeSantis: report
Disney responded by vowing to appeal, NBC News reports, despite CEO Bob Iger’s past claims to want to “quiet down” Disney’s role in the culture wars. “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,” a company spokesperson said. “We are determined to press forward with our case.”
Fans of the governor quickly took to social media to cite the outcome as a rebuke of those who claimed throughout 2022 and 2023 that DeSantis was losing to Disney or was otherwise wrong to oppose the company. These critics included former Republican presidential primary competitors Trump, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, as well as an array of leftists including Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In response, fans of the former president and presumptive 2024 nominee suggested that DeSantis’s victory was only due to Trump’s appointment of Winsor.
Trump, what's the definition of "desantis is being absolutely destroyed by disney?" https://t.co/HYFaqvmKyg pic.twitter.com/GorLSBo3fF
— Joel Weingart (@JoelWeingart_) January 31, 2024
.@VivekGRamaswamy sure had a lot to say about DeSantis and Disney. Any updates, Vivek? pic.twitter.com/De05jm7dEK
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) January 31, 2024
Regardless, Florida’s stand against Disney ended the park’s exemptions from the Florida Building Code and Florida Fire Prevention Code and from various state regulatory reviews and approvals, imposed new transparency requirements, ended its tax advantages, made it liable for its own municipal debt, and cleared the way for CFTOD to abolish Reedy Creek’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee and associated programs, including any jobs associated with it and programs to award contracts on the basis of racial and gender metrics.
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