Disney's lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis has teeth, legal experts say

[aubiefifty 16,791]

Disney's lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis has teeth, legal experts say

Sindhu Sundar

6–7 minutes

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Disney's lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a good start to its case, legal experts said.Joe Raedle/Getty Images and AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

 

• Disney's lawsuit accused Florida officials of infringing on its constitutional rights.

• It cited a state legislator who'd suggested political disagreements had "kicked the hornet's nest."

• Disney can use its suit to look for more of that type of evidence to build a retaliation case, experts said.

Disney's long-brewing struggle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis culminated in a stunning lawsuit on Wednesday, where the entertainment giant said state officials retaliated against it, citing a lawmaker who said "You kick the hornet's nest, things come up."

Those remarks, along with those of other Florida officials whom Disney cited as denouncing its purported "woke ideology," can help the company lay the groundwork for a retaliation case, legal experts told Insider.

"If it was unequivocally clear that the whole purpose of a law was to retaliate against Disney for its executives' statements, that's a First Amendment violation," said David Schultz, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota law school, who has taught constitutional law.

"The government is not supposed to punish you for the views you express," he said.

Still, Disney also has the burden to show that it's more likely than not that Florida officials' intent behind the legislation at issue was to retaliate against the company, he added.

That's where the discovery mechanisms of the lawsuit may come in handy for Disney — the company can seek, for instance, more information about telephone conversations and email exchanges by Florida officials from when they were crafting efforts to dissolve Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District, that is the subject of controversy in the state.

Schultz said Disney could even seek in the lawsuit to depose DeSantis, who is widely expected to run for president.

Disney's lawsuit also evokes the US Constitution in its other claims, arguing that Florida officials have been infringing on its various constitutional rights, said James Ely Jr., a professor of law emeritus at Vanderbilt University.

For instance, it evokes the Constitution's Takings clause, which restrains the government from commandeering private property for public use without paying for it in some way. Here, Disney is arguing that its contracts in Florida are private property, and that the legislation amounts to "taking" it away, Ely told Insider.

"If the value of the contracts are destroyed by the Florida legislation, you could plausibly argue that there would be a taking," he said.

Disney's lawsuit followed a long-simmering conflict with Florida officials

In its 77-page lawsuit in Florida federal court, Disney laid out its side of a story whose beats may be familiar by now: In March 2022, DeSantis ushered through the "Parental Rights in Education Act," a measure restricting how schools can discuss gender identity and sexual orientation, which Democrats and LGBTQ+ activists have called the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Disney's then-CEO Bob Chapek said at the time that the company opposed the measure, and would be broaching it with DeSantis.

In April 2022, Florida legislators sent through a bill to undo a handful of special districts in the state, including Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District in Florida, where it had self-governing powers.

At the time, Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who advanced the bill, said, according to the Associated Press: "You kick the hornet's nest, things come up. And I will say this: You got me on one thing — this bill does target one company. It targets The Walt Disney Company."

Disney cited that quote in its complaint, arguing that "the campaign against Disney raced forward."

In remarks to other legislators last year in April, Fine also said the bill didn't single out Disney. "I would simply say that I reject the premise of the question that this bill is targeting one company and punishing one company," he said at a Florida House State Affairs Committee hearing at the time. "This bill deals with six special districts."

Fine also told Insider that the measure would end special treatment for Disney not available to other companies in the state, though he also included a barb against "woke" stances.

"To equate being treated the same way as your competitors to punishment shows a stunning level of arrogance that will not stand in Florida," he said in an email to Insider. "Disney is a guest in our state, and in Florida, Floridians set the rules, not woke Hollywood elites." 

A representative for the Florida Governor's office echoed a similar message in a statement to Insider.

"We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state," said Jeremy T. Redfern, the representative.

"This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law," he said.

Representatives and attorneys for Disney did not respond to Insider's emailed requests for comment ahead of publication.

The position articulated by state officials — including that the bill's focus extends beyond Disney — shows Disney will likely keep drawing on more pointed material to support its retaliation claims, said Schutz.

"The state can come up with some neutral reasoning," he said. "It's going to be a question of what evidence does Disney marshal to make their case out there."

Read the original article on Business Insider

[I_M4_AU 7,838]

Another point of view:

The legal filing is the latest salvo in a more than year-old feud between Disney and DeSantis that has engulfed the governor in criticism as he prepares to launch an expected 2024 presidential bid.

“They’re upset because they’re having to live by the same rules as everybody else. They don’t want to pay the same taxes as everybody else and they want to be able to control things without proper oversight," DeSantis said during a visit to Israel. “The days of putting one company on a pedestal with no accountability are over in the state of Florida.”

DeSantis then took over Disney World’s self-governing district and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services in the sprawling theme parks. But before the new board came in, the company pushed though an 11th-hour agreement that stripped the new supervisors of much of their authority.

The Disney lawsuit asks a federal judge to void the governor’s takeover of the theme park district, as well as the DeSantis oversight board’s actions, on the grounds that they were violations of the company’s free speech rights.

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2023/04/27/florida-gov--desantis-says-disney-lawsuit-is-political

I wonder if the 11th hour deal with a lame duck old board is legal since there would be giving up power in the near future?

 

[aubiefifty 16,791]

8 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Another point of view:

The legal filing is the latest salvo in a more than year-old feud between Disney and DeSantis that has engulfed the governor in criticism as he prepares to launch an expected 2024 presidential bid.

“They’re upset because they’re having to live by the same rules as everybody else. They don’t want to pay the same taxes as everybody else and they want to be able to control things without proper oversight," DeSantis said during a visit to Israel. “The days of putting one company on a pedestal with no accountability are over in the state of Florida.”

DeSantis then took over Disney World’s self-governing district and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services in the sprawling theme parks. But before the new board came in, the company pushed though an 11th-hour agreement that stripped the new supervisors of much of their authority.

The Disney lawsuit asks a federal judge to void the governor’s takeover of the theme park district, as well as the DeSantis oversight board’s actions, on the grounds that they were violations of the company’s free speech rights.

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2023/04/27/florida-gov--desantis-says-disney-lawsuit-is-political

I wonder if the 11th hour deal with a lame duck old board is legal since there would be giving up power in the near future?

 

we shall see. did you not already post this in another thread?

[I_M4_AU 7,838]

14 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

we shall see. did you not already post this in another thread?

Not this article, I did argue DeSantis is doing the right thing here.

[aubiefifty 16,791]

4 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Not this article, I did argue DeSantis is doing the right thing here.

well we shall find out. besides he is racist as well.

[I_M4_AU 7,838]

2 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

well we shall find out. besides he is racist as well.

Of course he is.  

[aubiefifty 16,791]

1 minute ago, I_M4_AU said:

Of course he is.  

he silenced black voices in florida. what do you call it? now he is being sued for slander.

[aubiefifty 16,791]

4 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Of course he is.  

Florida Straight Up Lied About AP African-American Studies Course, College Board Says

 

6–7 minutes

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference on Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)

 

The organization that sets Advanced Placement curricula came out swinging at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying in a statement published Saturday that the state’s Department of Education “slandered” its AP African-American Studies course, and accusing the DeSantis administration of lying about its communications with the College Board. 

The College Board also disputed that it had diluted the course and made contemporary topics like Black Lives Matter and reparations optional only after the Florida governor said the class would be banned from being taught in Florida schools. 

The DeSantis administration had rejected the course as part of a crusade against what it’s called “woke” education, then celebrated the College Board’s revised curriculum released earlier this month. But the College Board alleged in its statement that DeSantis—who is rumored to be considering a presidential bid in 2024—always intended to shut down the course for political reasons. 

The College Board statement says that the conversation over the AP African-American Studies curriculum “has moved from healthy debate to misinformation,” and that the organization needed “to clear the air and set the record straight.”

“We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies ‘lacks educational value,’” said the statement, which is only attributed to the College Board. “Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”

The College Board’s statement came after the Florida Department of Education released a letter last week detailing communications with the College Board regarding the content of the course going back to January 2022. 

The Florida Department of Education said in the letter that it was in frequent contact with the College Board regarding the course. But the College Board contradicted that on Saturday, saying that phone calls attempting to engage with Florida on its concerns “were absent of substance” and rather focused on “vague, uninformed questions” such as: “Does the course promote Black Panther thinking?” 

“While it has been claimed that the College Board was in frequent dialogue with Florida about the content of AP African American Studies, this is a false and politically motivated charge,” the College Board said. “We had no negotiations about the content of this course with Florida or any other state, nor did we receive any requests, suggestions, or feedback.”

DeSantis announced earlier this year, before the changes, that Florida would reject the AP African-American Studies class, because it was allegedly furthering a “political agenda.” 

“We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them when you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes,” DeSantis said in January. 

The dispute over the AP African-American History course is just the latest in DeSantis’s attempt to restore what he’s described as a more traditional K-12 and higher education, and which critics have described as more like an attempt at conservative indoctrination. Under DeSantis, Florida has passed laws banning public schools from teaching what it’s branded “critical race theory,” as well as the discussion of sex and gender in elementary schools. 

DeSantis also appointed six right-wing activists to the board of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school, in an attempt to make the college into what his chief of staff has called the “Hillsdale of the South,” a reference to the arch-conservative private college in Michigan. The trustees fired the college’s president and named as its interim president former DeSantis education chief Richard Corcoran, a Republican former state House speaker who once described education as “100 percent ideological” and a “sword” to wage war for conservative values. 

The College Board claimed that it repeatedly pushed the state Department of Education to detail specific feedback and concerns with the course, to no avail. “We have made the mistake of treating FDOE with the courtesy we always accord to an education agency, but they have instead exploited this courtesy for their political agenda,” the group wrote. “After each written or verbal exchange with them, as a matter of professional protocol, we politely thanked them for their feedback and contributions, although they had given none.”

The College Board also said that the agency leaked the letter to the media—it was first reported by the Tucker Carlson-founded conservative news site The Daily Caller—to “claim credit” for changes to the course and the removal of terms such as “systemic marginalization” and “intersectionality,” as part of an effort to “engineer a political win” for DeSantis.

“This is not true,” the College Board said. “The notion that we needed Florida to enlighten us that these terms are politicized in several states is ridiculous.”

The Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment from VICE News.

[I_M4_AU 7,838]

DeSantis rejected the proposed curriculum and told the board to try again because it was teaching CRT.

 

And from the AP board:

Gov. Ron DeSantis is credited with forcing a rewrite of a new high-school AP class in African-American Studies, after Florida balked at such lesson topics as “Black Queer Studies.” Denying pressure, the College Board said the revisions were pedagogical: “This course has been shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices.”

Yet its own faculty advisers privately castigated this as dishonest spin, according to emails we obtained via open-records laws. “I have patiently and quietly watched the ubiquitous interviews and media assertions that AP would not make changes at the behest of any group beyond professors, teachers, and students,” wrote Nishani Frazier, a University of Kansas professor who sits on the AP course’s development committee. “If this is so, which student, professor, or teacher suggested adding black conservatives to the course over Combahee River Collective?”

Ms. Frazier continued: “We all know this is a blatant lie. In fact, the major changes which occurred came from my unit—and not once did AP speak with me about these changes. Instead, it rammed through revisions, pretended course transformation was business as usual, and then further added insult to injury by attempting to gaslight the public with faux innocence.” The course was “edited behind our backs,” she wrote. “What is unsaid is the failure of AP to recognize both its own institutional racism and how its own lies and capitulation precipitated the creation of a monster of its own making.”

Another professor on the curriculum committee, David Embrick of the University of Connecticut, apparently forwarded Ms. Frazier’s cri de coeur to a sociology professor at Trinity College. “Yikes...Nishani is right here,” Mr. Embrick said. The sociologist’s reaction: “Dude, College Board is f— over y’all.”

The College Board’s reply came from Trevor Packer, who has led the AP program since 2003. “While we stand by our statement that there has been no collaboration or exchange of ideas with Florida,” he said, “Nishani’s point below is right and true: edits made to the framework that were not adequately discussed with the Development Committee are a violation of our core processes for developing AP frameworks. We are deeply sorry for that breakdown.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-board-african-american-studies-ap-course-ron-desantis-florida-emails-817262f4

So now Florida IS teaching AP African American studies, it’s just stripped of the WOKE as it should be.  Not racist.

[CoffeeTiger 5,108]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/02/ron-desantis-disney-lawsuit-wokeness-donald-trump-2024/

Disney is using DeSantis's own memoir to support their case against him. DeSantis apparently thought it was a good idea to brag in his book about how he abuses his executive office to punish Disney for being too "woke". 

Should be fun when Discovery opens up and DeSantis has to turn over internal communications. If he was this open about his unconstitutional actions in his public book imagine what was said behind closed doors. 

[Leftfield 2,601]

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

On 4/28/2023 at 9:24 AM, aubiefifty said:

Disney's lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis has teeth, legal experts say

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This did not age well . . . 

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000018d-6103-d4fe-addf-6b5f29c30000

 

Edited January 31 by NolaAuTiger

[auburnatl1 4,920]

If you look at the current state of Desantis and Disney  vs 2 years ago - you could conclude they both lost.

[CoffeeTiger 5,108]

51 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

This did not age well . . . 

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000018d-6103-d4fe-addf-6b5f29c30000

 

Meh, it's only one judges ruling. A Trump appointed Federalist Society judge at that. 

I wouldn't expect Disney to let this die. 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

24 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Meh, it's only one judges ruling. A Trump appointed Federalist Society judge at that. 

Ahh, of course. The judge erred? His bias got the best of him? 

Okay then, let's hear your expert legal analysis on why dismissal was improper. I'll wait . . . 

28 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

I wouldn't expect Disney to let this die.

Let's hear your expert legal analysis here, too. I'll wait . . .

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

39 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

If you look at the current state of Desantis and Disney  vs 2 years ago - you could conclude they both lost.

So too did the dude who authored the OP, as well as the "legal experts" the dude relied on. 

[CoffeeTiger 5,108]

1 hour ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Ahh, of course. The judge erred? His bias got the best of him? 

Okay then, let's hear your expert legal analysis on why dismissal was improper. I'll wait . . . 
 

maybe . Maybe not. 
 

I do know that Winsor’s nomination was opposed by outside groups because of concerns about his impartiality, and he hasn’t done much to dispel those concerns in his time on the bench. 
 

and I hope you don’t actually believe that federal judges are nominated by the dominate party to be unbiased in their rulings? Lol

 

1 hour ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Let's hear your expert legal analysis here, too. I'll wait . . .

I obviously don’t have an ‘expert’ analysis and don’t know if the dismissal itself was proper or not. 
 

but i do question his opinion that because the written legislation didn’t specifically say that it was targeting Disney for their speech, that a judge and court can’t possibly rule or conclude that that was the purpose or intent of the law. 
 

The ultimate outcome of that ruling is that a government entity can essentially target legislation to specific individuals and organizations for unconstitutional reasons as long as the government doesn’t officially state that that’s what they are doing. 
 

Winsor justified his opinion citing cases where the challenged laws affected more people and entities than the Reedy Creek law at hand did. 
 

 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

53 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

maybe . Maybe not. 
 

I do know that Winsor’s nomination was opposed by outside groups because of concerns about his impartiality, and he hasn’t done much to dispel those concerns in his time on the bench. 
 

and I hope you don’t actually believe that federal judges are nominated by the dominate party to be unbiased in their rulings? Lol

 

I obviously don’t have an ‘expert’ analysis and don’t know if the dismissal itself was proper or not. 
 

but i do question his opinion that because the written legislation didn’t specifically say that it was targeting Disney for their speech, that a judge and court can’t possibly rule or conclude that that was the purpose or intent of the law. 
 

The ultimate outcome of that ruling is that a government entity can essentially target legislation to specific individuals and organizations for unconstitutional reasons as long as the government doesn’t officially state that that’s what they are doing. 
 

Winsor justified his opinion citing cases where the challenged laws affected more people and entities than the Reedy Creek law at hand did. 
 

 

Thank you for addressing my questions.