Walt Disney Parks and Resorts moved Friday to narrow a federal lawsuit that alleges state officials unconstitutionally retaliated against the company because of its opposition to a 2022 law that restricted instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
Disney attorneys filed a motion seeking approval to amend a lawsuit filed in April against defendants including Gov. Ron DeSantis. The lawsuit came after DeSantis and Republican lawmakers this year approved a bill that replaced the longstanding Reedy Creek Improvement District with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
Disney was closely aligned with the Reedy Creek district, while the bill gave DeSantis power to appoint members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board. Disney alleges that the change was retaliatory in violation of the First Amendment and should be blocked. The lawsuit has included issues stemming from development agreements reached by Disney and the former Reedy Creek Improvement District board.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board and the Legislature took steps to void the agreements. In seeking to amend the federal lawsuit Friday, Disney said it would drop the issues related to the development agreements and focus only on the retaliation issue.
At least in part, that is because Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District also are battling about the development agreements in a case filed by the district in Orange County circuit court. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor on Friday denied the motion to amend the lawsuit for a procedural reason but said Disney can resolve the problem and refile the motion.
–News Service of Florida
Dennis C Rathsam says
Sold all my stock a year ago, take my grand kids to Universal! Disney is a cancer of true family values. The Wide World of Color from Disney was on every Sunday night at 8pm! The whole family got togeather to watch it before putting the kids to bed. Great shows, family entertainment Walt was the bomb… Now Disney has lost its way, and is a total disaster. Thier movies, & ideas SUCK! Now they raised the prices, the park dirty, and Americans are boycotting thier gender disforia! The park is losing money everyday.The price to park, & price of water is outrageous, forget about buying a burger, & fries. The charge you an outrageous amout to get in then rip you off all day long! Floridians have finally seen the light, and thier ripoff ways thanks to a governer that cares about families & their kids.
better now says
Walt was a racist– hated Jews. I’m so happy you supported Disney when he was in charge. I worked at Disney in Orlando in the 90s. They hired many, many minorities, lbjtq+, and had their finger on the pulse of treating people with respect and integrity. Their staff had access to daycare, college courses, housing, etc. Staff had to fight for better pay, as of late, but overall when compared to retail and other employers, Disney isn’t so bad. No entity can bring in the tourism dollars that they do….no one. They still have a dress code (make-up, jewelry, etc– not a fan of, but they do) b/c they are a family friendly institution. I worked at a water park around the same time and tourists were the most horrible at breaking family friendly worlds. Disney does a fantastic job at maintaining the atmosphere. It is expensive…no one can argue that…but so is Florida as a whole. Without Walt, they are no longer a racist entity…so sad that is the Disney you support!!!
Ban the GOP says
Funny how a company that goes above and beyond to be inclusive of all people gets attacked by a bunch of racist idiots to be made the bad guy. Racist ron is the problem not disney land.
The racist govenor does not give a damn about people no law or policy that he has made has benefited anyone but his donors. Tell me how defunding public schools helps kids? Sounds like you get all your info from faux news Entertainment network. So go back to sleep.