DeSantis Begs Court for Victory Over Disney After Primary Loss

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign last weekend after a devastating Iowa caucus loss. Experts credited much of voters’ disdain for the Republican candidate to his ongoing battle against The Walt Disney Company. Amid his diminishing popularity in the presidential primaries, DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) board begged a Florida judge to reconsider a decision that favored Disney.

The battle between the House of Mouse and the conservative politician began in 2022 when former Disney CEO Bob Chapek publicly condemned the Parental Rights in Education Act (“Don’t Say Gay”). In what Disney would later call an act of retaliation against its First Amendment rights, DeSantis introduced legislation to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District. It quickly passed, ending a legal privilege held by Walt Disney World Resort for decades.

A year later, under returned CEO Bob Iger, Disney sued DeSantis and the state of Florida for illegally retaliating against the company’s protected free speech. DeSantis countersued, sending both parties into months of court filings and legal bureaucracy.

In a filing last week, Disney cited a recent court decision against DeSantis to bolster its case. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of former Tampa prosecutor Andrew Warren, who sued DeSantis for violating his First Amendment rights. The court didn’t reappoint Warren but criticized DeSantis in its decision. The case will proceed to trial.

DeSantis suspended Warren over alleged inappropriate conduct, but the Democrat prosecutor claimed that the Republican governor fired him over public political statements. Warren vocally criticized the criminalization of abortion, gender-affirming care for children, and other minor offenses.

In Thursday’s filing, Disney claimed that similar values were at stake in their and Warren’s cases. The DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board now exercises control over Walt Disney World Resort municipal services and has forced state inspectors onto attractions like the Monorail. Warren lost his job.

The CFTOD responded in a filing on Friday, asking the judge not to allow Disney to use Warren’s ongoing case as precedent. They claimed the former prosecutor’s case hinged on DeSantis’s “unilateral action,” while the dissolution of Reedy Creek was voted on by “a majority of lawmakers in both houses of the Florida Legislature.”

DeSantis’s side concluded that Warren’s ongoing trial “has no effect on this case.”

As former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley continue their battle for the White House, DeSantis is back in Florida, begging the court to favor him over Disney once again.

Should Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or The Walt Disney Company win this legal battle? Share your thoughts with Inside the Magic in the comments.