Disney/DeSantis Update: The Mouse Amends Lawsuit; Ron Keeps Talking

Remember how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ interview/2024 infomercial with “News”max from over the weekend, where he was claiming some kind of victory over Disney – and doing a pretty decent job blurring the lines between retaliating against “The Mouse” for opposing the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” hate bill and his legislative attempts to undercut the company under the questionable guise that it’s being done out of “fairness” (try not to choke too hard on the irony there). Well, apparently, Disney was listening – or, at least, the company’s legal team was. On Monday, The Walt Disney Company amended its lawsuit against DeSantis, accusing the governor of retaliatory practices and infringing upon “The Mouse’s” First Amendment rights.

Along with citing some of Ronnie D’s more recent comments, the amended complaint (which you can read in full here) also includes two additional actions allegedly done with DeSantis’ blessing: monorail inspections would fall under state oversight and a bill that would void a development agreement between Walt Disney World and the special district (the 30-year agreement that was passed prior to DeSantis’ hand-picked folks taking control – and then realizing they didn’t have a lot of power to do anything to “The Mouse”). “The State’s actions over the last two weeks are the latest strikes. At the Governor’s bidding, the State’s oversight board has purported to ‘void’ publicly noticed and duly agreed development contracts, which had laid the foundation for billions of Disney’s investment dollars and thousands of jobs,” Disney write in its amended complaint. “Days later, the State Legislature enacted, and Governor DeSantis signed, legislation rendering these contracts immediately void and unenforceable. These government actions were patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional.”

And “The Mouse” isn’t just talking about what’s gone on so far. As they see it, DeSantis has made it clear that he will do whatever it takes to hurt the company for its opposition to his fiefdom. Think about that for a second. DeSantis is so over-the-top bad that he’s made a mega-corporation like Disney look like a cross between Anonymous and “a ragtag group of rebels.”The Governor and his allies have made clear they do not care and will not stop. The Governor recently declared that his team would not only ‘void the development agreement’ – just as the State has now done, twice—but also planned ‘to look at things like taxes on the hotels,’ ‘tolls on the roads,’ ‘developing some of the property that the district owns’ with ‘more amusement parks,’ and even putting a ‘state prison’ next to Walt Disney World. ‘Who knows? I just think the possibilities are endless,’ he said,” Disney also included in its amended claim.