In Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Dory,” the forgetful eponymous fish’s catchphrase is the lovably sing-songy “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!” If Dory were on Disney‘s legal team in its ongoing feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, she might want to tweak that to “Just keep talking, just keep talking!” Disney updated its federal lawsuit against the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday by using his own words against him.
Disney filed the original lawsuit last week after the state legislature dissolved The Walt Disney Company’s long-standing development deal that had been in effect for the past 30 years. Disney’s grounds for the lawsuit were that Gov. DeSantis voided that development deal — and with it Disney’s special authority to self-govern its Florida theme park district — for personal, retaliatory reasons after Disney opposed the governor’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
DeSantis confirmed as much in statements last week, so Disney gladly added those words to its amended lawsuit. At the very top of the new filing’s introduction, Disney quotes Gov. DeSantis’ words from May 5: “[T]his all started, of course, with our parents’ rights bill.”
The lawsuit goes on to further suggest that DeSantis is far from done retaliating against the company for exhibiting free speech. Once again, the Governor’s own recent words provided plenty of support for their updated argument: “The Governor recently declared that his team would not only ‘void the development agreement’—just as the State has now done, twice—but also planned ‘to look at things like taxes on the hotels,’ ‘tolls on the roads,’ ‘developing some of the property that the district owns’ with ‘more amusement parks,’ and even putting a ‘state prison’ next to Walt Disney World. ‘Who knows? I just think the possibilities are endless,’ he said.
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has fun imagining his own little theme park of possibilities for how to get back at Disney, he seems to be exhibiting a very short-term memory for how many jobs and tax dollars the state gets from the company. Or maybe he just has the same condition as Dory.
The post Disney uses Gov. Ron DeSantis’ own words against him in amended lawsuit appeared first on ClutchPoints.
