Ron DeSantis Strikes Back in Disney Battle
Ron DeSantis has requested that a judge who is overseeing Disney's First Amendment lawsuit against the Florida governor be disqualified over alleged lack of impartiality.
DeSantis and his team filed a motion on Friday seeking Chief Judge Mark Walker be dismissed from the case over remarks he made about the governor's ongoing feud with the company in which Walker mentioned Disney as an example of state retaliation.
In the first case, Walker was discussing a lawsuit filed by Florida professors that challenged a new law establishing a survey about "intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity" on state campuses, which the judge threw out.
"What's in the record, for example—is there anything in the record that says we are now going to take away Disney's special status because they're woke?" Walker said, as quoted in DeSantis' filing.
The second example cited is when the judge asked in court whether Disney is going to lose its protected privileges in Florida "arguably, because they made a statement that run afoul" of state policy of the controlling party.
"Those remarks—each derived from extrajudicial sources—were on the record, in open court, and could reasonably imply that the Court has prejudged the retaliation question here," the court filings state. "Because that question is now before this Court, and because that question involves highly publicized matters of great interest to Florida's citizens, the Court should disqualify itself to prevent even the appearance of impropriety."
Disney is suing DeSantis over allegations the governor is "weaponizing" the government to punish the company after it publicly objected to his so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, which bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain grades at Florida schools.
"Disney regrets that it has come to this," the corporation's lawsuit reads. "In America, the government cannot punish you for speaking your mind."
Newsweek reached out to Disney's legal team via email for comment.
In what critics considered a retaliatory move for vowing to repeal the "Don't Say Gay" law, DeSantis revoked Disney's special tax privileges and tax breaks, protected under the Reedy Creek Improvement District which had allowed Disney to run as its own self-governing authority in Florida for more than 50 years.
DeSantis then handpicked a five-person Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace Reedy Creek.
It was later revealed that before DeSantis' board could take over, an agreement was made between Disney and Reedy Creek Improvement District which severely restricted the incoming board's powers.
Disney also recently announced it would be pulling a proposed plan to build a $1 billion corporate campus in central Florida that would have created 2,000 jobs as a result of the "considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project."
On Friday, DeSantis said there is a "zero" chance that he will back down from his battle with Disney.
"They've had their own government for 50 years, it's massive corporate welfare," said DeSantis. "We're not doing that...They're not going to govern themselves. We the people are going to govern. To put one corporation on a pedestal and let them be exempt from the laws is not good policy."
"It's not free-market economics and it's not something that our state is going to be involved in," he added. "We will not change from that. They can do whatever they want. I know people try to chirp and say this or that. The chance of us backing down from that is zero."
