Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Disney v. DeSantis judge called Florida governor's law 'dystopian'

Published 04/26/2023, 06:42 PM
Updated 04/27/2023, 06:02 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People gather ahead of the "Festival of Fantasy" parade at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park in Orlando, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2022.  REUTERS/Octavio Jones/File Photo

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People gather ahead of the "Festival of Fantasy" parade at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park in Orlando, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2022. REUTERS/Octavio Jones/File Photo

By Tom Hals

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -When attorneys for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appear in court to defend against Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) Co's lawsuit that accuses the Republican official of weaponizing state government, they will see a familiar face, if not always a welcome one.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee has struck down several laws that defined DeSantis' conservative political agenda, including statutes that sought to limit the speech of college professors, curtailed protests and restricted voting access.

Walker was nominated to the federal court by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

Disney sued DeSantis on Wednesday to block a state law that created an oversight board that Disney said will interfere with billions of dollars of planned development.

The feud between the global entertainment giant and a likely candidate for the 2024 presidential election started last year, when Disney criticized a law signed by DeSantis that banned classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation for younger children.

Disney alleges a law that imposed an oversight board was punishment for voicing opposition to DeSantis' classroom instruction law known as the Parental Rights in Education Act.

The company called the state's actions "particularly offensive here due to the clear retaliatory and punitive intent."

The gender-education statute, derided by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" law, survived challenges in federal court before a different judge.

Free speech has been central to several rulings by Walker against DeSantis, although the judge has also at times sided with the governor.

Walker blocked the Individual Freedom Act or Stop Woke Act, which limited the speech of college professors, calling it "positively dystopian" in an opinion that began with a quote from George Orwell's anti-totalitarian novel "1984."

In 2021, Walker blocked the Combating Public Disorder Act, which DeSantis signed into law after the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of police.

Walker ruled the law's expansion of the definition of "riot" infringed on protesters' right to free speech.

The judge last year enjoined a law signed by DeSantis that banned ballot drop boxes and prevented groups from offering food and water to voters waiting in long lines, causes championed by Democrats as a way to support voter turnout.

The judge also sided with plaintiffs in a second lawsuit challenging a different aspect of the Stop Woke Act, which defined as "unlawful employment practices" workplace training around issues of race and sex.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People gather ahead of the

Walker said Florida had become a place where the First Amendment allowed, rather than prevented, the state to limit speech. Or as he put it, "in the popular television series Stranger Things, the 'upside down' describes a parallel dimension containing a distorted version of our world. Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down."

The judge has also ruled with DeSantis and declined to block the execution of a death row inmate and dismissed some claims against the governor over the Individual Freedom Act.

Latest comments

Maga communist want to enact socialist policies to benefit their cronies and restrict speech of free enterprises.
This is clearly a biased article, written by a left wing pundit
Dystopian is a company that tracks its guests from the moment they step foot on their property, and uses social engineering to influence their behaviour.
“Restrict voting access”? Reuters is an absolutely dispicable organization.
Fake news.
For me Dystopia is when Mickey Mouse is teaching my kids how to tuck.
The Magic Kingdom isn't so magic when you have to pay taxes is it?
Everyone is moving to Dystopia?
. Desantis, the governor of the dystopian state of Florida......
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.