Florida Governor Ron DeSantis asks court to dismiss Disney's Lawsuit

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Posted: Monday June 26, 2023 5:30pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has filed a motion asking the court to dismiss Disney's lawsuit against him.

In the motion, DeSantis says, "The Court should dismiss the amended complaint, or at minimum, dismiss all claims against the State Defendants."

DeSantis claims, "Its last-ditch power grab having been foiled under state law, Disney now turns to federal constitutional law to sue the Governor, the Secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the CFTOD Board, and CFTOD’s Administrator. Its claims are meritless for many reasons, not least of which is that a special district cannot bind the State to transfer a portion of its sovereign authority to a private entity."

You can read the full 27 page motion here.

Disney claims in its lawsuit filed in a federal court that there has been "A targeted campaign of government retaliation-orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney's protected speech-now threatens Disney's business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights."

The Walt Disney Company has filed a federal lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

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flyakite15 hours ago

JohnD7 days ago

Disney Oversight District to Issue $175 Million in New Bonds for “Extremely Busy” Development at Walt Disney World (from BlogMickey) https://blogmickey.com/2025/06/disney-oversight-district-175-million-new-bonds/

JohnD11 days ago

Maybe it's short-term or good for one day. Doesn't work. Just saw this on Monday. You shared on Friday.

mkt13 days ago

Sadly, nothing in that surprises me. What Florida has become unfortunately and sadly reminds me of my years and Latin America. And not in a good way.

Batman'sParents13 days ago

There ya go: https://archive.ph/5rP8Z

JohnD15 days ago

Is there a non firewall version of the link?

flyakite15 days ago

In case anyone is curious, this Orlando Sentinel article discusses Craig Mateer, who is currently on the CFTOD Planning Board and was previously on the Board of Directors for 7 months. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/05/26/at-this-tallahassee-hotel-the-public-isnt-invited-desantis-advisers-are/ If someone can attach a non-firewall link, that would be appreciated.

mktMay 02, 2025

The free speech claim was federal, the land use claim was state.

mikejs78May 02, 2025

The federal case was not predicated on FL free speech law, it was based around 1st amendment jurisprudence and the US Constitution contract clause. The state case was based around state law but not speech state law.

Bullseye1967May 02, 2025

I am not sure of the actual filing and I will admit that I am too lazy to look through all the filings you posted, Thank you, but I think it was a claim on FL law and not Federal. The Sol on "free speech" in FL is 3 years, but it is not limited in USC, And if this is right, it was what I quoted above. The clock is ticking. A federal court can not take action on a state law case if SoL has expired.

JoeCamelMay 01, 2025

Saved them a bunch of cash

Chi84May 01, 2025

The State was happy with the way things were. For many, many years.

mikejs78May 01, 2025

My gut says that beginning in 2027 there will be legislation that slowly picks away at CFTOD and gradually returns control to Disney. It won't happen all at once - but I bet it will happen.