{"id":33155,"date":"2023-06-27T00:26:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T04:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=33155"},"modified":"2023-06-27T00:26:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T04:26:21","slug":"ron-desantis-seeks-dismissal-of-disney-lawsuit-claims-hes-immunity-from-litigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/06\/27\/ron-desantis-seeks-dismissal-of-disney-lawsuit-claims-hes-immunity-from-litigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis Seeks Dismissal of Disney Lawsuit Claims He\u2019s Immunity from Litigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Attorneys for Florida Governor\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0claimed that he is immune from\u00a0The Walt Disney Co.\u2019s\u00a0federal lawsuit\u00a0over his effort to strip the company of control over a special district covering its theme parks and resort in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a motion to dismiss filed on Monday, attorneys for the state also argued that the federal district court lacks jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough Disney grabbed headlines by suing the Governor, Disney \u2014 like many litigants before it who have challenged Florida\u2019s laws \u2014 has no basis for doing so. Neither the Governor nor the Secretary [of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity] enforce any of the laws at issue, so Disney lacks standing to sue them,\u201d the attorneys wrote in their motion (read it here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s attorneys also called the Disney lawsuit \u201cmeritless for many reasons,\u201d including that \u201ca special district cannot bind the State to transfer a portion of its sovereign authority to a private entity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney filed its lawsuit against the governor in April, claiming that he violated the company\u2019s First Amendment rights by retaliating against its opposition to a parental rights law, also known as \u201cdon\u2019t say gay.\u201d The company also named as defendants the new DeSantis-selected board of the Reedy Creek special district, which was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The their motion to dismiss, the state\u2019s attorneys argued that DeSantis is entitled to \u201cabsolute legislative immunity\u201d for signing the bill that stripped Disney of control of the Reedy Creek special district. The attorneys claimed that the immunity covered the governor no matter if his actions were retaliatory. The state contended that Disney could not claim that the governor enforces the legislation \u201cbecause he signed it. When the governor signs a bill, he acts in a legislative, not executive, capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state also claimed that DeSantis and his Economic Opportunity secretary do not have power over the new special district board, other than the governor\u2019s ability to appoint its members. And the attorneys also contended that the governor had no authority to enforce Disney\u2019s contracts, in response to the company\u2019s claim that DeSantis also violated the contracts clause of the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Disney spokesperson said that they had no immediate comment. The company has until late July to file a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before DeSantis signed the bill stripping the company of control over the special district, the Disney-backed members of Reedy Creek passed development agreements that ensured that the company would still have a say over planning decisions and other matters. The state then passed a law prohibiting the DeSantis-controlled special district from complying with the development agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Disney filed the federal lawsuit, DeSantis-selected special district board filed its own litigation in state court <\/a>against the company, seeking to have the development agreements declared void and unenforceable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its own motion, the special district board said that the federal case should be stayed until the state case is resolved. The board also urged an alternative action: a dismissal of Disney\u2019s case \u201cdue to the forum- selection clause that requires Disney to bring these claims in the circuit court for Orange County, Florida.\u201d The district board claimed that the development agreements \u201care void as a matter of Florida law and therefore have never had any legal force or existence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board\u2019s attorney, Charles Cooper, wrote in their brief that Disney \u201cdoes not have a First Amendment right to its preferred governance structure for the district in which it is located. To the contrary, that is a fundamental matter of state sovereignty that the First Amendment does not restrict.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorneys for Florida Governor\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0claimed that he is immune from\u00a0The Walt Disney Co.\u2019s\u00a0federal lawsuit\u00a0over his effort to strip the company of control over a special district covering its theme parks… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[5318],"class_list":["post-33155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ron-desantis-seeks-dismissal-of-disney-lawsuit-claims-hes-immunity-from-litigation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}