Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants out of his legal battle with Disney, according to court records filed by his attorneys this week.
The mass media company in April sued the Republican presidential candidate for taking away its ability to self-govern the 25,000-acre site of its Walt Disney World amusement parks in Orlando. Disney claimed DeSantis targeted and retaliated against the company with the move because it disagreed with his "Don't Say Gay" bill last year, which bans education about sexual orientation and gender identity in some Florida classrooms.
DeSantis' attorneys asked a federal judge Monday for immunity from the case, which would drop the suit and free him from any further legal action, liability or punishment. In a legal filing, his attorneys said the court should dismiss the case in part because "all of Disney’s claims fail as a matter of law."
A spokesperson for Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But attorneys for the company wrote in their lawsuit, "Disney finds itself in this regrettable position because it expressed a viewpoint the governor and his allies did not like." Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is one of the largest taxpayers and employers in the state, they wrote.
What do DeSantis and Disney disagree on?
Disney wants back its long-standing rights to self-govern its Orlando-based Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts under its special tax district formerly called The Reedy Creek Improvement District.
On Feb. 27, DeSantis signed a bill banishing the company's ability to do just that and renaming the district the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. HB 9 ensures The Walt Disney Co. "is no longer given preferential treatment," his administration wrote in a news release that month.
“Allowing a corporation to control its own government is bad policy, especially when the corporation makes decisions that impact an entire region,” DeSantis said in February. “This legislation ends Disney’s self-governing status, makes Disney live under the same laws as everybody else, and ensures that Disney pays its debts and fair share of taxes.”
Before DeSantis signed the bill, Disney's special district was exempt from Florida's Building Code and Fire Prevention Code and state regulatory reviews and approvals, the release reads.
In March last year, Disney's then-CEO Bob Chapek publicly denounced DeSantis's Parental Rights in Education Act, which opponents dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, at a company shareholders meeting. That bill bans public school educators in Florida from teaching kindergarten, first, second and third graders about sexual orientation or gender identity.
"We were opposed to the bill from the outset," Chapek said at the meeting, also announcing the company would donate $5 million to organizations that protect LGBTQ rights. DeSantis signed the bill into law that month.
Why did Disney sue DeSantis?
In a lawsuit filed April 26, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts claimed DeSantis retaliated against the company when he passed the law banishing Disney's long-standing ability to self-govern Walt Disney World because of what its CEO said about the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
The lawsuit reads: "For more than half a century, Disney has made an immeasurable impact on Florida and its economy, establishing Central Florida as a top global tourist destination and attracting tens of millions of visitors to the State each year.
"This government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional," it says.
Disney's attorneys go on to criticize DeSantis for other proposed and recent threats to the site: “to look at things like taxes on the hotels,” “tolls on the roads,” “developing some of the property that the district owns” with more amusement parks, and even putting "a state prison next to Walt Disney World."
The company wrote that it exhausted other options to come to a resolution and needed legal action to "protect its cast members, guests and local development partners from a relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials."
It is asking the court to declare that Senate Bill 4C and House Bill 9B "are unlawful and unenforceable because they were enacted in retaliation for Disney’s political speech in violation of the First Amendment," among other requests.
How did DeSantis respond to Disney's claim?
DeSantis' administration called the lawsuit "yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law."
"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," Taryn Fenske, a communications director for DeSantis, said in a statement in late April.
In a news conference in Jerusalem in April, DeSantis said: "I don't think the suit has merit. I think it's political," NBC News reported.
What's next in this case?
A federal judge will decide whether to grant DeSantis immunity from Disney's lawsuit.
Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @kaylajjimenez.
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