Thursday, news broke that Disney dropped its appeal in its First Amendment lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Dropping the lawsuit officially ends the two-year battle that was sparked by the company’s opposition to DeSantis’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.
The move came the day after the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved a new 15-year development agreement, making way for Disney to invest up to $17 billion to expand its theme parks in Florida.
The Federal case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in January, who found that the state of FL had the power to revoke the district regardless of the motives for doing so. Disney immediately appealed that decision, stating that “if left unchanged, this would set a dangerous precedent and give license to states to weaponize their official powers to punish the expression of political viewpoints they disagree with.”
Now that the new development agreements are in place and Disney has dropped its suit against DeSantis, the focus can get back to the theme parks.
