Lawyers Told DeSantis Singling Out Disney Would Be ‘Difficult to Explain and Defend’

It’s hard to believe that at one point, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company were on friendly terms. It was even more than just that. Disney gave Governor DeSantis thousands for his election and re-election campaigns, and that gave Disney the governor’s ear. But obviously, all that has changed.

Related: Funny Story, DeSantis’ Disney Laws May Be Unconstitutional

In 2022, then Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, after pressure from cast members. DeSantis and the Florida Legislature responded by stripping Disney World of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and replacing it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. And that has landed all parties in Federal and State Court.

But a new article from Jason Garcia at Seeking Rents is shining new light on just how close the relationship between Florida Gov Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company was and how laws that Disney asked to have changed were “difficult to explain and defend” in court.

In 2021, DeSantis and the Florida Legislature crafted a wide-ranging law that would allow the state to punish social media companies for removing posts or refusing to publish posts from certain media companies or political figures, even if those posts violated the company’s rules on hate speech, violent incitements, or disinformation. DeSantis used Twitter and Facebook’s bans on former President Donald Trump after he incited the January 6 Riot at the Capital Building to justify taking on the tech companies.

New: Records show how Ron DeSantis targets his attacks on free speech — despite what his lawyers claim in court

A look at how the Florida governor and presidential candidate tries to sidestep the U.S. Constitution in order to silence speech he dislikes.https://t.co/iyjju6weSh pic.twitter.com/5PIwoe2fSm

— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) December 6, 2023

But the law was so broadly written, on purpose, that it could have been used against any company doing business online, including Disney. For example, Disney could be punished for removing hate speech from the comments section on Disney Plus or its Shop Disney. So, Disney does what Disney does and makes a phone call to the governor. Disney had just written Florida Gov Ron DeSantis a $50,000 check for his re-election campaign.

So, working with Florida Legislatures, DeSantis’ staff was able to get Disney an exception to the law. But that opened them up to a host of other legal challenges. In an email to one of DeSantis’ in-house lawyers, attorneys at Cooper & Kirk, who are also representing the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in its lawsuit against Disney, said that the Disney exception would be “difficult to explain and defend.”

And in fact, that email has proven correct. Lawyers for the tech firms use that email and the Disney exception to show that DeSantis only wished to punish those who spoke out against him. Lawyers for the State will have to defend the law and the Disney exception before the Supreme Court. In an ironic twist, the email from Cooper & Kirk only came to light because of Disney’s current case against Governor DeSantis for government retaliation and violating Disney’s First Amendment Rights.

In a brief filed last month, lawyers for the tech companies wrote:

DeSantis and the Florida Legislature were happy to give Disney a gerrymandered carve-out. The state later discovered that the viewpoints it wished to punish are not limited to Silicon Valley, but reach Hollywood, too.

DeSantis is finding out that many of his laws violated the Constitution, but that realization is coming at a steep price for the residents of Florida. 

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.