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Disney has yet again won another round in its ongoing legal battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Mouse House and DeSantis have been entangled in a war after the company spoke out against his "Don't Say Gay Bill." DeSantis introduced a law that prevented discussing sexuality or gender identity in certain grades at Florida's public school and Disney publicly denounced the move after pressure from its workers at Disney World.
The latest loss for DeSantis came after a judge ruled Disney could amend its complaint and continue to pursue legal action. DeSantis agreed to Disney's motion to the change.
"Plaintiff has filed a Second Amended Complaint," ruled the judge, according to Deadline. "Accordingly, the motions to dismiss the First Amended Complaint are denied as moot."
"Defendants must respond to the Second Amended Complaint within 14 days. Alternatively, if the parties wish to stipulate that the earlier motions to dismiss, response, and replies (to the extent applicable to the remaining claim) should be directed to the Second Amended Complaint, they may file a joint notice saying so, and the court will address those arguments as applied to the new pleading," the judge added.
The company responded to the ruling.
"We will continue to fight vigorously to defend these contracts, because these agreements will determine whether or not Disney can invest billions of dollars and generate thousands of new jobs in Florida," a spokesperson told Deadline.
Disney had filed a federal lawsuit against DeSantis saying that Florida has violated its Article I constitutional rights under the Contract Clause, 1st Amendment right to free speech, 5th Amendment rights under the Takings Clause, and 14th Amendment rights to due process.
The legal dust-up started when DeSantis retaliated against Disney's public condemnation of his controversial bill by stripping the company of its self-governing rights over Disney World in Florida. For more than 50 years, Disney World operated in a special tax district known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. This allowed it to be an autonomous site, until DeSantis dissolved the district to replace it with his own hand-picked board, now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTO).
Disney tried to quash the move by making a deal with the CFTO's predecessors, only for it to turn around and file a lawsuit against the company for what it alleges has limited its authority in the district.
"The brief summary is that Disney alleges that Governor DeSantis and the CFTOB have sought to punish Disney for speaking out against the 'Don't Say Gay' law by taking away their control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, seeking to nullify a valuable development agreement signed between Disney and Reedy Creek, and threatening Disney with future reprisals if Disney does not change the content in shows and movies," Aubrey Jewett, associate professor and assistant director at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida, told Newsweek in August.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more