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When the battle between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Disney touched off a little more than a year ago, DeSantis was careful to specify that this wasn’t about retaliation. DeSantis was heavily critical of Disney’s comments about his state’s controversial schools legislation restricting LGBTQ discussion, called “don’t say gay” by its critics. But he indicated that revoking Disney’s special tax status was more about his general opposition to special districts like the one it had.
“I would not say that would be retaliatory,” DeSantis said, adding: “I don’t think we should have special privileges in the law at all.”
“I don’t think it’s retaliatory,” he said again. “I just think that Disney’s posturing has alienated a lot of people now.”
Disney sued DeSantis on Wednesday over just that: retaliation. It argues, in the latest salvo in an increasingly contentious feud, that DeSantis and the GOP-controlled legislature’s actions clearly amount to retaliation against Disney’s First Amendment-protected speech. Disney criticized the bill, the argument goes, so DeSantis went after Disney.
A DeSantis spokeswoman called Disney’s lawsuit “another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters” and circumvent state law.
There are significant legal hurdles to Disney proving its case in court. But even as DeSantis tried to keep the r-word at arm’s length, both the timeline and plenty of other comments — including more recent ones — would seem to bolster Disney’s case.
On March 28, 2022, Disney first announced it would push for a repeal of the law, which prohibited instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade. The next day, DeSantis said Disney had “crossed the line” and added, “We’re going to make sure we’re fighting back when people are threatening our parents and threatening our kids.”
Quickly, lawmakers began talking about revoking Disney’s special tax district, then known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. DeSantis’s own comments about Disney’s tax status came March 31, three days after Disney’s statement.
When DeSantis three weeks later announced a special session to take up the issue, the stated purpose was pointedly general. Disney wasn’t singled out, with DeSantis saying legislators “will be considering termination of all special districts.” And again, the clash was pitched as being ancillary to the business at hand.
“I think any other year, this would get overwhelming bipartisan support,” said a co-sponsor of the bill, state Rep. Spencer Roach (R). “But now everything is being seen through the prism of the parental rights bill.”
Quickly, though, others said outright that Disney’s criticism of the bill was the impetus and even that Disney was being singled out.
“You kick the hornet’s nest, things come up,” another promoter, state Rep. Randy Fine (R), said. “And I will say this: You got me on one thing: This bill does target one company. It targets the Walt Disney Company.”
By June, DeSantis himself recounted having directly warned Disney about taking the posture it did against the education legislation.
“I though it was a mistake for Disney to get involved, and I told them, ‘You shouldn’t get involved; it’s not going to work out well for you,’ ” DeSantis said. The governor said he was “punching back,” while suggesting that this was merely about Florida taxpayers not being forced “to subsidize [Disney’s] activism.”
Revoking Disney’s special tax status soon proved impractical, so DeSantis reverted to effectively taking over the board with his own appointees. But last month we learned that before the takeover took place, the old board had quietly hamstrung the new board. The new board has sought to overturn that.
Last week, DeSantis responded to Disney’s 11th-hour move with some of his most in-your-face comments to date. He floated raising its taxes or taking other obviously punitive measures, including building a prison near the Magic Kingdom.
“Come to think of it now, people are like, ‘Well, what should we do with this land?’” DeSantis said. “Maybe create a state park. Maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison. I mean, who knows? I mean, I just think that the possibilities are endless.”
The tension here is apparent. On the one hand, being tough on and “fighting back” against Disney suits DeSantis’s political purposes as he eyes a 2024 presidential bid. DeSantis recently outlined a vision in which Republicans should take a harder line on supposedly “woke” corporations that use their stature to assert political power. On the other, it’s an approach that not only raises potential legal red flags (some had predicted just such a lawsuit), but has alienated some small-government conservatives, including DeSantis’s potential 2024 GOP opponents.
Even those Republicans have suggested they agree with Disney that DeSantis’s actions amount to retaliation for political speech. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) called it “penalizing your business because they disagree with you politically.” Former vice president Mike Pence spoke about the issue in similar terms.
Whether the courts will agree isn’t as clear. There is no question that Disney’s criticism of the education legislation was linked to what DeSantis and Florida Republicans did — both because of the timing and, in some cases, by their own admission. Whether it can be proved that the motive was retaliation for protected speech, as Disney claims, is to be determined. Among the issues is the fact that Disney enjoyed a special privilege — essentially a local government of its own — that others did not. Here’s a good rundown of the legal issues from last year.
But since that article was written, this dispute has taken a number of turns that would seem to reinforce that it’s not just about special tax districts, as DeSantis initially claimed. The district technically remains intact, while effectively being taken over by the governor. And DeSantis talking last week about taking actions seemingly just because Disney wouldn’t like them ratchets things up.
Disney’s lawsuit takes things to another level still. And it could have major consequences not just for the 2024 race, but for the GOP’s newfound appetite for cracking down on corporations it doesn’t like.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/26/disney-desantis-lawsuit-retaliation/