Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz
A federal judge threw out a retaliation lawsuit filed by the Walt Disney Company against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials on Wednesday, handing DeSantis a win in his seemingly never-ending clash with the entertainment giant.
The lawsuit, filed last year, claimed that DeSantis and a state board teamed up to violate Disney’s First Amendment right to free speech by retaliating against it for criticizing proposed legislation about the discussion of sexuality in classrooms.
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, an appointee of Donald Trump based in Florida’s capital, said Disney’s legal argument didn’t hold water since the alleged retaliation—appointing a not-so-Disney-friendly oversight committee to oversee the company’s special development district—came via constitutionally enacted state laws.