Disney sues Ron DeSantis, seeking to have retaliatory laws declared unconstitutional

Ora­tors at Repub­li­can con­fabs like to rail against “big gov­ern­ment” and “over reg­u­la­tion,” declar­ing them­selves pro-busi­ness and anti-red tape. The heavy hand of gov­ern­ment gets depict­ed as an imped­i­ment to America’s mar­ket economy.

Well, that was before Gov­er­nor Ron DeSan­tis of Flori­da came along.

DeSan­tis had appeared, until recent­ly, to be a rem­e­dy to the wild rhetoric of Don­ald Trump, a Trump-with­out-Trump ultra MAGA dar­ling and hot prospect for the 2024 Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion. He is report­ed­ly ready to announce his can­di­da­cy as soon as the Flori­da Leg­is­la­ture adjourns its 2023 ses­sion. A pro-DeSan­tis super-PAC is already duel­ing in TV ads with a Trump super-PAC.

But DeSan­tis is falling in the polls, trail­ing Trump by thir­teen points in the lat­est Wall Street Jour­nal sur­vey and los­ing ground in endorsements.

DeSan­tis held a meet-and-greet with Repub­li­can mem­bers of Con­gress recent­ly in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. The Trump cam­paign used the occa­sion to roll out endorse­ments from House mem­bers, notably from Florida.

How come? DeSan­tis is learn­ing that Mick­ey Mouse is Mighty Mouse. He has tak­en on Dis­ney World, a mas­sive pres­ence in the Orlan­do area, and learned a basic tru­ism: He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.

Dis­ney is now suing the Sun­shine State, charg­ing DeSan­tis with wag­ing “a relent­less cam­paign to weaponize gov­ern­ment pow­er against Dis­ney in retal­i­a­tion for express­ing a polit­i­cal view­point unpop­u­lar with cer­tain state officials.”

Mean­ing DeSantis.

DeSan­tis has set out to make the Sun­shine State a right wing mod­el for the nation. At his behest, the ger­ry­man­dered Flori­da Leg­is­la­ture has just vot­ed to ban abor­tion after six weeks. The gov­er­nor has set out to take over and trans­form a small state-run uni­ver­si­ty. But as cen­ter­piece, DeSan­tis cham­pi­oned the “Parental Rights in Edu­ca­tion Act,” bet­ter known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It ban­ish­es dis­cus­sion of sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion and gen­der iden­ti­ty from Florida’s pub­lic schools.

Disney’s then-CEO Bob Chapek dis­sent­ed, say­ing he would work to revoke the leg­is­la­tion. DeSan­tis retal­i­at­ed. with leg­is­la­tion to strip Dis­ney of its spe­cial tax sta­tus and put Dis­ney World under the aegis of DeSan­tis appointees.

The Reedy Creek Improve­ment Dis­trict is a moniker. It was an induce­ment that Flori­da offered to Dis­ney, giv­ing the com­pa­ny con­trol over its domain. With its own gov­ern­ing board, the com­pa­ny has long run a sort of city-with­in-a-city over its domain, over­see­ing roads and pro­vid­ing such ser­vices as fire protection.

The com­pa­ny respond­ed with an inge­nious way to hold onto its pow­er. The out­go­ing Dis­ney board evoked a “roy­al lives” clause allow­ing Dis­ney to hold onto devel­op­ment rights over a forty-square mile area, as well as any alter­na­tions to its prop­er­ty. The clause, says Dis­ney in remark­able lan­guage, is “valid in per­pe­tu­ity or until death of the last sur­vivor of the descen­dants of King Charles III.”

Big dom­i­neer­ing gov­ern­ment, DeSan­tis style, does not tol­er­ate dis­sent even from a big cor­po­ra­tion. The Gov­er­nor has talked about locat­ing a “state prison” next to Dis­ney World. The new­ly DeSan­tis-appoint­ed Cen­tral Flori­da Tourism Over­sight Dis­trict Board has declared Disney’s devel­op­ment plan “void and unenforceable.”

The gov­er­nor has accused the com­pa­ny of a “woke” men­tal­i­ty – the polit­i­cal right has its own jar­gon for such things – and “indoc­tri­nat­ing young chil­dren” in a ver­boten lifestyle. He has talked about locat­ing a “state prison” next to Dis­ney World.

The sev­en­ty-sev­en-page Dis­ney suit was dropped while DeSan­tis was on a busi­ness-pro­mot­ing trip to Europe and the Mid­dle East, capped by a ses­sion with Israel’s Prime Min­is­ter Netanyahu. Small busi­ness­es lack resources to chal­lenge the state, says the com­pa­ny, “but Dis­ney knows that it is for­tu­nate to have the resources to take a stand against the State’s retaliation… ”

Of DeSan­tis’ actions, the Dis­ney brief declares: “This gov­ern­ment action was patent­ly retal­ia­to­ry, patent­ly anti-busi­ness and patent­ly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. But the Gov­er­nor and his allies have made clear they do not care and will not stop.”

“Patent­ly anti-busi­ness”, a Repub­li­can gov­er­nor with pres­i­den­tial ambi­tions. “Do not care and will not stop” – words that Repub­li­can politi­cians have so often applied to Demo­c­ra­t­ic office­hold­ers.” “Weaponiz­ing gov­ern­ment pow­er” — words often spo­ken by Repub­li­can lawmakers.

DeSan­tis is no main-street con­ser­v­a­tive. He is a believ­er in and prac­ti­tion­er of big gov­ern­ment and author­i­tar­i­an rule. He is seek­ing to impose his will and retal­i­ate against any and all who stand in his way, even a major employ­er in his state.

What would Walt Dis­ney, a stead­fast Hol­ly­wood con­ser­v­a­tive and foe of union­iz­ing, have thought of DeSan­tis’ actions?

The pub­lic is get­ting a whiff of this and does not like it.

DeSan­tis is mount­ing up a pres­i­den­tial cam­paign just as his sup­port is falling. Author­i­tar­i­an rule is the antithe­sis of what Amer­i­ca is about.