She Helped Save Disney From a Supreme Court Case, Now She’s In Charge of DeSantis’ Disney District

In 2021, Florida Governor Ron 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.

Related: Disney Should Have Been In Front of the Supreme Court This Week, But Bought Its Way Out

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 its shopDisney website.

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 and attorneys at Cooper & Kirk, who also represent the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in its lawsuit against Disney, said that the Disney exception would be “difficult to explain and defend.”

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

Working behind the scenes in all this was Governor DeSantis’ aide, Stephanie Kopelousos. Working with lobbyists for The Walt Disney Company, Kopelousos helped get Disney the exception, which is now being argued in front of the Supreme Court. But with all the tech companies arguing against the law, Disney was not a part of this case because of the help it received from Kopelousos.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to have another project for Stephanie Kopelousos involving The Walt Disney Company. He has nominated her to take over for the recently departed Glen Gilzean as the administrator for the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the Board that oversees the Walt Disney World Resort.

Glen Gilzean recently departed the position of Administrator of the Disney District to take over as the Orange County Supervisor of Elections.

Related: A New State of Uncertainty At DeSantis’ Disney District as Gilzean Leaves for Election Post

Before being recommended by Gov Ron DeSantis, Stephanie Kopelousos worked on his failed presidential campaign and, before that, worked as a senior adviser and director of legislative affairs for DeSantis.

The Board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District must still approve her appointment to the position, but DeSantis’ office called it a “done deal.”

Her appointment as the former Reedy Creek Improvement District administrator comes at a difficult time for the Board that oversees Disney World. Disney and the Board are involved in a court case, with Disney accusing the Board of violating the contracts clause of the Constitution. The case will be heard this summer in state court.

But while those battles head to court, the District also faces a brain drain. Since the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District took over the Disney District, more than 40 District employees have quit, taking over 400 years of service with them.

You can' make this shit up.
The staffer whom DeSantis now wants to put in change of the Disney district is the same one who was previously caught – wait for it – secretly working WITH DISNEY LOBBYISTS to do the company favors.

Back when Disney was still cutting DeSantis checks. https://t.co/8EcaA3IrXG pic.twitter.com/18kGDjhkCu

— Scott Maxwell (@Scott_Maxwell) March 11, 2024

Related: More Workers Flee DeSantis’ Disney District As It Is No Longer ‘Functional’

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, told the Orlando Sentinel: 

This is another example of a loyal team member of DeSantis being picked. This is just another political appointment of a friend to a well-paid position. She is definitely more qualified than Glen, but that is still setting a low bar. As long as DeSantis continues to operate as an authoritarian figure with complete control over state agencies, the Legislature and public must continue to demand transparency and accountability.

Given her close working relationship and experience working with Disney and Walt Disney World, perhaps Stephanie Kopelousos can help to cool some of the tension between the Board of DeSantis appointees and Disney World.

If not, it may be a long, hot summer in Central Florida.

What do you think of the new administrator of the Disney District? Let us know in the comments.