DeSantis vs. Disney: What’s at stake
The yearlong feud between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Disney Corp. has erupted into a bitter legal fight “with no end in sight,” said Arian Campo-Flores and Robbie Whelan in The Wall Street Journal. The giant entertainment company sued DeSantis and other state officials last week, accusing DeSantis of a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” for Disney’s exercise of its free-speech rights. The war began when Disney criticized Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bars teachers from talking to young children about gender identity and sexual orientation. DeSantis struck back by undermining Disney’s selfgoverning powers over a special district containing Disney World in Orlando, and stocking the governing board with conservative loyalists. When Disney outsmarted him by having the old board preserve the company’s authority just before it was disbanded, the vengeful governor threatened to raise Disney’s taxes and build a prison right next door. Now a growing number of Republican lawmakers are suggesting DeSantis has “overplayed his hand.”
His struggling presidential campaign stands as proof of that, said Julian Zelizer in CNN.com. DeSantis evidently thought that attacking a “woke” corporation would score points with the party’s populist base. But he’s descended into an ugly personal vendetta with an “iconic” company that for many symbolizes “family values.” His attempts to silence and bully a corporation have also unnerved the business leaders and donors who remain “a central constituency of the GOP.” Disney isn’t blameless, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Its denunciation of Florida’s law was “gratuitous”; now CEO Bob Iger is trying to curry favor with “his progressive employees” by “taking on a Republican disliked by media and culture elites.” Given that millions of customers might not care for Disney’s “woke turn,” this is a “brawl that both could lose.”
In court, DeSantis is most likely to lose, said David French in The New York Times. It’s a bedrock First Amendment doctrine that government cannot retaliate against protected speech. Disney’s lawsuit cites dozens of “remarkably brazen” statements from DeSantis and his allies that they were punishing the company for its “mild opposition” to the “Don’t Say Gay” law. If Disney were to lose, any public official—Republican or Democrat—could openly use government power to punish critics and opponents, casting “a pall of fear over private expression.” The issues at stake here are much bigger than DeSantis’ sagging presidential ambitions.