After a lengthy battle with the state of Florida dating back to a dispute on last year's Parental Rights in Education bill, Walt Disney Corporation is now suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) over the loss its status as a special district.
In 2022, the Disney Corporation voiced strong disapproval over the Parental Rights in Education Bill that Governor DeSantis signed into law. The legislation was branded by activists as the "Don't Say Gay Bill," by the Left, with Disney mostly leading the way against the conservative piece of legislation. Since then, the governor's office teased revoking special privileges from the company.
Earlier this year DeSantis signed the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which would level the playing field for neighboring amusement parks in Disney's area, such as Sea World and Universal. The legislation would strip away special entitlements that Disney has enjoyed for decades. The governor detailed Disney and the state's feud before approving the legislation.
"Disney came out against something that was really just about protecting young kids and making sure that students are able to go to school learning to read, write, add and subtract and not having a teacher tell them that they could change their gender," said Gov. DeSantis. "I think most parents agree with that but you know that was only a mild annoyance I think that what we came to realize after that dust settled on that was you clearly had a movement within the corporation itself."
The battle has seemed to be lopsided with the state of Florida constantly clobbering Disney, but now the company is fighting back with a lawsuit. Disney is claiming Florida, "orchestrated targeted campaign of government retaliation," and violated their free speech rights.
Disney called Florida's actions, "anti-business," and, "unconstitutional." Disney went as far as to claim that the nullified contracts cost the company billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. The state of Florida however, has maintained their actions were justified.
"We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state," said DeSantis Communications Director Taryn Finske.
