Last year, under pressure from its employees, Disney criticized a Florida education law that prohibits discussing sexual orientation and gender identity for young students in the classroom. Almost immediately, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis began calling the company “Woke Disney” and vowed to show them who was boss.
“If Disney wants to pick a fight, they picked the wrong one,” Mr. DeSantis wrote in a fundraising email at the time.
Since then, at the urging of Mr. DeSantis, Florida lawmakers have targeted Disney – the state’s largest taxpayer – with a variety of hostile measures. In February, they ended Disney’s long-held ability to self-govern its 25,000-acre resort as if it were a county. Last week, Mr. DeSantis plans to subject Disney to new ride inspection regulations.
Disney has been quietly maneuvering to protect itself, which has enraged the governor and his allies. On Wednesday, however, the company decided enough was enough: Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Mr. DeSantis and a five-member board overseeing Disney World’s government services in federal court, alleging “a targeted campaign of retaliation by the government”.
“In America, the government can’t punish you for speaking your mind,” Disney said in his complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Disney had criticized the Parental Rights in Education Act, which opponents labeled “Don’t Say Gay” and which prohibits classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity for students through third grade. The DeSantis administration recently extended the ban to grade 12.
The lawsuit charged Mr. DeSantis with a “relentless campaign to arm government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political point of view.” The campaign, the complaint added, “now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes the region’s economic future and violates its constitutional rights.”
Taryn Fenske, a spokeswoman for Mr. DeSantis, called the lawsuit “another unfortunate example of their hopes to undermine the will of Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law.” She added: “We are not aware of any legal right a company has to run its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other companies in the state.”
Only a short time ago it would have been unthinkable that Disney and Florida were such bitter opponents. Since 1967, when Republican state leaders gave Disney the right to self-government as an incentive to build an amusement park, the company and Florida governors have largely gotten along. Disney has always made significant political contributions. But the real clout came in the form of jobs and economic impact: Disney World is the nation’s largest single-location employer — employing about 75,000 workers — and draws 50 million guests annually, fueling Florida’s all-important tourism economy.
Disney paid and collected a total of $1.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2022, according to the company’s disclosures. The company recently said it had allocated $17 billion for expansion spending at the resort over the next decade, growth that would create 13,000 additional jobs at the company.
The conflict between Mr. DeSantis and Disney has become a national spectacle, in part because he’s a leading Republican presidential candidate (although he hasn’t officially announced a bid). He has drawn criticism from would-be presidential rivals for his ruthlessness towards Disney. “This is all so unnecessary, a political STUNT,” former President Donald J. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media site, last week.
Daniel M. Petrocelli, a powerful Los Angeles litigation attorney, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Disney in Tallahassee. Mr. Petrocelli was the attorney Mr. Trump turned to in 2016 when he dealt with a class action fraud case against the defunct Trump University.
Disney’s case was assigned to Mark E. Walker, Chief Justice for the Northern District of Florida. Judge Walker, known for his sharp rulings and appointed by President Barack Obama, has experience with First Amendment cases. Last year, he handed a victory to the University of Florida professors, saying they could not be barred from giving expert testimony in lawsuits against the state.
“Disney regrets that it has come to this,” the complaint reads. “The company spent nearly a year trying to de-escalate the matter and attempted several times to engage in productive dialogue with the DeSantis administration. But after all the attempts to come up with a solution, the company has no choice.”
Disney filed its complaint after a board appointed by Mr. DeSantis to oversee Disney World overturned two agreements that gave Disney massive control over the expansion of the resort complex. The appointees voided the agreements after the board’s general counsel, Daniel Langley, provided evidence of what he called “self-dealing” and “procedural unscrupulousness” by Disney pushing them through this year. Mr. Langley said Disney had violated Florida law in multiple ways, including by not fully informing the public of the actions it was taking.
One of the agreements gives Disney the ability to build an additional 14,000 hotel rooms, a fifth theme park and three smaller parks. The other restricts the use of adjacent land; no strip clubs for example. (Disney World already has four theme parks, two water parks, 18 Disney-owned hotels, a mall, and a 220-acre sports complex.)
Disney’s lawsuit called the board’s action “obviously retaliatory, patently anti-business and patently unconstitutional.” Disney has repeatedly described the agreements as “appropriate” and made at public meetings advertised in The Orlando Sentinel.
At the center of the battle between Mr. DeSantis and Disney is a 56-year-old special tax district that includes Disney World. The district effectively turned the property into its own county, giving Disney unusual control over fire protection, policing, waste management, power generation, road maintenance, bond issuance, and development planning.
Florida has hundreds of similar special tax districts. One pertains to The Villages, a hulking senior community northwest of Orlando. Another covers Daytona International Speedway and the surrounding area.
In February, lawmakers decided to allow the governor to appoint a board of trustees for the Disney district in an effort to curtail the company’s autonomy. However, when the appointees came forward, they found that the previous Disney-controlled board had approved the development agreement and restrictive covenants, limiting the power of the new board for decades to come.
They were furious, as was Mr. DeSantis. He responded by proposing a variety of possible punitive measures against Disney, including reassessing the resort’s value for property tax charges, imposing tolls on roads leading to Disney World, and developing land near the entrances to the resort. resort.
“Maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more theme parks — someone even said you might need another state prison,” he said at an April 17 press conference.
He has also asked Florida’s Superintendent General to investigate Disney’s attempts to circumvent his authority.
Mr. DeSantis and his allies have repeatedly characterized their actions as simply placing Disney on “level playing field” with other amusement park operators in the state. But Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Legoland don’t have oversight boards controlled by the governor. Based on the governor’s comments, the state’s other major theme parks would not be subject to additional safety inspections, only Disney World.
Disney CEO Robert A. Iger has called Mr. DeSantis “anti-business” and “anti-Florida” for his actions. Mr. Iger has also indicated that future investment in Disney World could be jeopardized if the governor continues to use Disney as a political punching bag.
“A company, like individuals, has the right to freedom of expression,” Mr. Iger said at Disney’s annual shareholders’ meeting this month. “The governor got very angry about the position Disney took and it seems that he has decided to retaliate against us, including appointing a new board to oversee the property, basically to start a company. penalties for exercising a constitutional right. And that just seems very wrong to me.”
