Disney sued Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and presumed challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, on Wednesday, saying he had subjected it to “a targeted campaign of government retaliation”.
The entertainment giant wants a court to overturn state efforts to exert control over Walt Disney World in Orlando. The lawsuit was filed within minutes of a DeSantis-appointed oversight board voting to override agreements made in February that allowed the company to expand the theme park and maintain control over neighboring land.
Disney called the state government’s action “patently retaliatory, patently anti-business and patently unconstitutional”.
It added: “At the governor’s bidding, the state’s oversight board has purported to ‘void’ publicly noticed and duly agreed development contracts, which laid the foundation for billions of Disney’s investment dollars and thousands of jobs.
“The governor and his allies have made clear they do not care and will not stop.”
The lawsuit is a dramatic escalation of a year-long battle between DeSantis and one of the largest employers in his state.
Last year, DeSantis moved against self-governing powers long granted to Disney after it opposed his so-called “don’t say gay” laws, concerning the teaching of gender and LGBTQ+ issues in Florida schools.
In response, Disney, which historically appointed members to its oversight board, passed covenants keeping such powers out of the hands of the board appointed by DeSantis.
Right before the governor’s allies took over, the Disney board gave the company power over future development in the area, which takes up 27,000 acres, in perpetuity, dulling any powers the governor’s allies might seize.
DeSantis said he would fight back, joking with reporters about perhaps building a new state prison close to the Disney World park.
In its lawsuit, Disney described its “immeasurable impact on Florida and its economy, establishing central Florida as a top global tourist destination and attracting tens of millions of visitors to the state each year”.
The company employs at least 75,000 people at the park and receives 50 million visitors annually.
The Florida state government campaign against Disney, the lawsuit said, was “orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech [and] now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region and violates its constitutional rights”.
DeSantis did not immediately publicly respond.
Jeremy Redfern, his deputy press secretary, said in a statement posted on Twitter: “We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state.
“This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law.”
However, DeSantis has already sustained political damage from the fight, from conservatives concerned about using government power against private companies. Thomas Peterffy, an online trading billionaire, cited DeSantis’s LGBTQ+ policies in schools, the issue at the heart of the fight with Disney, before giving $1m to Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia governor who has not entered the Republican race.
Neither, formally, has DeSantis. Having won re-election in a landslide last November, he was initially a strong rival to the former president Donald Trump in polling regarding 2024 but has recently slipped back, amid attacks on his personality and approach to relations with other Republicans at state and national levels.
A succession of Florida Republicans and other high-profile elected officials have endorsed Trump.
DeSantis has this week been traveling internationally, on a state trade mission widely seen as meant to burnish his presidential credentials. The Disney fight continues to dog him, however.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, Virginia, called the complaint “a sweeping indictment” of DeSantis and Florida Republicans’ attempted retaliation against Disney.
“The complaint alleges violations of the federal constitution’s contracts, takings and due process clauses, and the first amendment’s free speech clause,” Tobias said in an email.
“Disney may not be able to prove violations of all of these provisions but the complaint is persuasive, creative and damning. Moreover, certain federal judges in the northern district of Florida have ruled in favor of plaintiffs in other rather similar high-profile, controversial cases.”
Tobias pointed to “Judge Robert Hinkle … who has ruled recently on a proposed execution, on transgender issues, and on DeSantis’ firing of the Hillsborough county prosecutor”, a Democrat who refused to enforce an abortion ban.
Jennifer Horn, a former Republican operative now a senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy, at the University of Chicago, said DeSantis “had to know [the Disney lawsuit] was coming”.
DeSantis, she said was attempting to “use government to silence speech, to punish someone who has a political disagreement with an elected leader.
“Disney wins hands down.”
