Florida - Monday August 7, 2023: A group of mostly Republican former high-level government officials have filed a motion to support Disney in a lawsuit the entertainment giant filed against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
The “friend of the court” brief was filed last Wednesday, according to the WDW News Today newsletter. In it, the GOP leaders compare DeSantis’ actions to those of the Russian and Chinese governments also punishing businesses, saying “retaliation and censorship are symptoms of autocracy.”
Among the Republican officials who filed this latest brief are former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Kerry Murphy Healy, and former U.S. Representatives Tom Coleman, Claudine Schneider, and Christopher Shays.
After Disney publicly denounced Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, DeSantis and the legislature "took several retaliatory actions, leading to taking over the Reedy Creek Improvement District ... and replacing the Board with DeSantis appointees," states the article in WDW News Today, adding that DeSantis’ actions "are no doubt “retributive” against Disney. The Reedy Creek Improvement District has been re-named the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board (CFTOD).
Critics have dubbed the Parental Rights in Education bill the "Don't Say Gay" bill. It bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.
Disney's lawsuit accuses the Republican governor of violating its free speech rights by taking over the district
The Amicus Curiae Brief states:
In following these autocratic examples, Governor DeSantis’s actions cause harm that is far broader than that suffered by Plaintiff [Disney Parks]. In choosing to punish Plaintiff in the public square for criticizing contentious legislation, Governor DeSantis has made clear that he will use the power of his office to exact retribution against any corporation that dares to [use] their economic power to advance an agenda contrary to his own, or to become political and not merely economic actors. The Court should not validate this chilling authoritarian impulse if the promise of the Constitution is to have any meaning in the State of Florida.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also filed a 'friend-of-the-court" brief last week arguing that a win by the Florida governor would embolden other governments across the U.S. to take actions against journalists and other media when they exercise their First Amendment rights.
CFTOD Board Countersues Disney
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board (CFTOD) is countersuing Disney in state court. Disney tried but failed to have their lawsuit dismissed for being moot. However Judge Margaret Schreiber ruled that a suit is only moot “when the controversy has been so fully resolved that a judicial determination can have no actual effect.”
In their suit, the Board asks the state court to render Disney’s development agreement with the Reedy Creek Improvement District as unenforceable, null, and void.