The Mouse Strikes Back
Disney v DeSantis
In a new court filing Friday, Disney said it wants damages over how the governor has handled rescinding Disney's right to operate as its entity under the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
The Friday document is the latest in the fight between Florida and Disney, stemming from a lawsuit in which Florida has said RCID's plan to give Disney autonomous power should be thrown out.
This gets complicated since the Federal Judge overseeing the case, Allen Winsor, is a Trump-appointee and was passed through the US Senate via Mitch McConnell’s Nuclear Option, killing the filibuster for Gorsuch after preventing Obama from naming a Supreme Court Justice for a year following Scalia’s death. (And yes, Manchin voted for him.)
Judge Winsor, a member of the Federalist Society — go figure, also dismissed a lawsuit back in February of this year that challenged the “Don’t Say Gay” bill denying that the plaintiffs suffered any injury from the law.
He had formerly been Florida’s Solicitor General from 2013-16 and opposed gay marriage in 2014. Thus it is clear that he is hardly non-partisan in this dispute between DeSantis and Disney.
Ironically, this week, DeSantis’ Anti-Woke/Anti-Gay/Anti-Life? Presidential campaign has been suffering from many issues, including his lack of charisma, so finally he wants to extricate himself from it. (IMHO it’s because he’s going to lose badly.)
So…..
DeSantis wants to move on
In a move right from the playbook of little guys who taunt jacked up dudes a bar, Politico reports that Ron DeSantis has said that he’s ready to “move on” from his lawsuit with Disney... but, buddy, that’s not up to you any more, especially not in a legal battle you started.
Disney has sued various elected officials, including DeSantis, alleging that he has used his position as Florida’s governor to violate Disney’s first amendment rights via government retaliation. This all comes from the fact that Disney said they would be politically opposed to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, more officially called the “Parental Right in Education Bill,” which sure sounds nice until you realize that it will harm queer children who might not be in a household that is safe for them to exist.
The irony is that mere hours after DeSantis wants to pretend it all
didn’t happen (although he didn’t actually undo anything — just wants Ukraine to accept the new boundaries Disney to walk away without going to court), Disney comes back asking for damages:
Disney asserts Breach of Contract
Disney’s filing states that it has “fully complied with any and all obligations under the Contracts” and that DeSantis’ replacement Ready Creek Development board has “repudiated its duty” and commitments under that contract.
From the filing:
"The District has a duty under the terms of the Contracts to do such further acts and assurances as shall be reasonably requested by Disney to carry out the intent of the Contracts and give effect thereto and the District has refused to perform its obligations under the Contracts and has instead breached the Contracts by, among other things, declaring them void ab initio...”
Instead they assert that DeSantis’ ad hoc board has caused and will continue to cause “consequential damages” to Disney. Naturally, Disney wants the court (and there are a lot of questions as to how Judge Winsor is going to dodge on this one) to comply with existing contracts.
The Mouse’s attorneys seem to be at least as competent as “the Nazgul” were for IBM back for 13 years during the Sherman anti-trust suit and 1990’s against SCO. “They supposedly never sleep, are utterly ruthless, and are completely loyal servants to their master.”
Next question is how much this is going to cost Florida in terms of money, and DeSantis in terms of political support.
In the co-opted words of Thanos, I want it to cost him everything.
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