After a years-long political feud between Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney Co., the Mouse is taking the Florida governor to court.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Disney accused DeSantis of embarking on a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power” to punish the company for its liberal social views, according to The New York Times.
The suit came just minutes after a board appointed by DeSantis voted to nullify two agreements that Disney had quietly pushed through shortly before DeSantis’ takeover earlier this year. Those agreements allowed Disney to maintain sweeping control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special tax jurisdiction containing its Orlando theme parks.
“A targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech—now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights,” Disney added in the suit.
DeSantis seized the district last year in the culmination of a political spat that began when Disney spoke out against the governor’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans classroom discussion on gender and sexuality in schools.
DeSantis, who is seen as former President Donald Trump’s top challenger for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, has consistently made headlines with the public beef, using it as a cultural war issue to appeal to his political base.
When DeSantis announced the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in February, it marked a major escalation in what had previously been largely a war of words.
Since 1967 the district has allowed Disney wide latitude to control governance, policing, sanitation, and other public services in the area around its parks.
“The corporate kingdom finally comes to an end,” DeSantis said in a press conference at the time.
The Florida governor said he would be replacing the district with a state-appointed, five-member board, but Disney quietly hammered in multiple agreements that significantly limited the board’s power in the aftermath of the move.
At a meeting last Wednesday, the board announced a number of reasons why it considered the agreements to be illegal before voting to overturn them, precipitating Disney’s retaliatory lawsuit and throwing one of Florida’s major economic engines into legal chaos.
“This dispute has continued for more than a year already. We have to deal with guests and customers and are worried there will be repercussions for our restaurants,” the owner of a restaurant in the Disney Springs mall said at the meeting.