Ron DeSantis wants a federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama removed from his oversight of a First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor.
An attorney for the Republican governor filed a motion in Tallahassee federal court on Friday that seeks to disqualify US District Judge Mark Walker from the case.
The lawsuit alleges that DeSantis and his appointees violated the company’s right to free speech, as well as the contracts clause, by taking over the special governing district that previously had been controlled by Disney supporters after Disney opposed Florida legislation that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The Republican governor’s motion was filed a day after Disney announced that it was scrapping plans to build a new campus in central Florida and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development, amid an ongoing feud with DeSantis.
DeSantis’ motion said Walker referenced the ongoing dispute between his administration and Disney during hearings in two unrelated lawsuits before him dealing with free speech issues and fear of retaliation for violating new laws championed by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers.
One of those was a First Amendment lawsuit filed by Florida professors that challenged a new law establishing a survey about “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on state campuses.
Walker, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2012 by President Barack Obama and is now chief judge of the district, tossed out that lawsuit on the grounds that the professors didn’t have standing to challenge the law championed by DeSantis and Florida lawmakers.
In the first case, Walker said, “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?”
In the second case, the judge said, “And then Disney is going to lose its status because — arguably, because they made a statement that run afoul — ran afoul of state policy of the controlling party,” according to the DeSantis motion.
The Post has sought comment from Disney.
Disney filed the suit minutes after the DeSantis-picked oversight board struck down last-minute agreements made between Disney and the board that rules the 25,000-acre resort complex in Orlando.
“Today’s action is the latest strike: At the Governor’s bidding, the State’s oversight board has purported to ‘void’ publicly noticed and duly agreed development contracts, which had laid the foundation for billions of Disney’s investment dollars and thousands of jobs,” Disney said in the court filing.
“A targeted campaign of government retaliation — orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech — now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights,” the company alleged in a court filing.
DeSantis stripped Disney of control of Reedy Creek Improvement District, a specially created tax district, after the company spoke out against his “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans the teaching of sex and gender-based education to most elementary school students.
The board of supervisors which runs the newly christened Central Florida Tourism Oversight District operates as a self-governing authority over issues like taxation and maintenance of public works in and around the Disney theme parks.
Just a day before the February vote, RCID struck a deal that essentially gave Disney the authority to oversee zoning and development in the district for the next three decades.
DeSantis blasted Disney for the move and vowed to nullify it.
With Post Wires
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