Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is attempting to remove Chief Judge Mark E. Walker from presiding over Disney's federal lawsuit against DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District regarding the state's retaliatory actions again Disney.
In the motion filed today, DeSantis claims that Walker should disqualify himself from the case to "prevent even the appearance of impropriety."
The claim relates to two unrelated cases where the Court offered "Disney" as an example of state retaliation.
Walker was nominated to serve as district judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida by President Barack Obama in 2012 and became chief judge in June 2018.
You can read the full motion here and the opening comments below.
Defendants move to disqualify Chief Judge Mark E. Walker (the Court) under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) because the Court's impartiality in this matter might reasonably be questioned. This case involves claims that Defendants retaliated against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S., Inc. based on Disney's viewpoints. Yet two previous times, in two unrelated cases, the Court sua sponte offered "Disney" as an example
of state retaliation. Those remarks—each derived from extrajudicial sources—were on the record, in open Court, and could reasonably imply that the Court has prejudged the retaliation question here. Because that question is now before this Court, and because that question involves highly publicized matters of great interest to Florida's citizens, the Court should disqualify itself to prevent even the appearance of impro-
priety.