What’s Next in Disney vs. DeSantis?

May 3, 2023 Bangkok

There’s no way this ends on a good note, right?

Somebody may walk away sad, somebody may walk away pissed, and somebody may just walk away.

It sure seems inevitable.

So what’s next in Disney vs. DeSantis? It could be years before this is settled.

To recap:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis instituted a policy in which no school teacher could teach children about sexual orientation or transgender identity until after 3rd grade. It became known as the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.
The Walt Disney Company publicly challenged that bill.
DeSantis felt betrayed and vowed to get Disney.
The governor stripped Disney of its self-governance of its so-called Reedy Creek Improvement District, which let Disney have the ability to set its own bond rate or taxes, or even its own fire company.
Disney found a loophole in the original contract in which the agreement with the state would not end until at least the British monarchy ended. They basically outflanked and outmaneuvered DeSantis.
The governor got angry, and the state took Disney to court.
Disney got angry and sued the governor for basically unconstitutionally having an agenda against the company, and for reckless financial abandonment.

Now we are at an impasse between a wildly popular governor who might run for President, and a company that is the largest employer and taxpayer in the state. Put me somewhere and the conversation turns to, oh, say, baseball, and I feel like the smartest guy in the room. With this one, who knows? All I know is, it’s going to involve a lot of lawyers and court fees and judges.

“It’s mind-boggling – it really blows the mind – that it has devolved now to the point that we’re going to have this massive lawsuit,” Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida University said in Orlando-area newspaper. “It’s amazing to me that the governor and the Republican Legislature are willing to savage Disney and risk economic growth … over this one dispute.”

Supporters of the governor are trying desperately to portray this as a business versus public entity case. It’s about personal agendas. But that’s the subject of a different column. This is all about what happens next, and even people who have no understanding of the situation know that this is headed to the courts for awhile. It’s too far along for anything else. Already, the state courts are involved, and so are the federal courts.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said at an event this week, “Where are we headed here now, that if you express disagreement in this country, the government is allowed to punish you? To me, that’s what I always thought liberals did. And now all of a sudden here we are participating in this with a Republican governor.”

So what happens next? Maybe nothing. Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina invited Walt Disney World to relocate to her state. We all know that’s never going to happen so the governor of Florida and the biggest entertainment company in the world are going to have to learn to play nice.

Source:https://bit.ly/41YPBsi