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Disney has sued DeSantis and other governmental officials for retaliating against its exercise of free speech. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 56.1.0.pdf

Showing off its savvy, the mouse did not sue the state of Florida -- only the officials that participated in retaliation against Disney.

I was going to post highlights, but it would be well worth your time to read the whole complaint. As a strong defender of the First Amendment, I lack the words to describe how blatant and anti-Constitutional the actions of these government officials, led by DeSantis, have been. For all of its handwringing over "cancel culture," the right is engaged in out and out tyrannical abuse of power in disregard of the fundamental rights of American citizens.

The teachers, professors, and other individuals that the DeSantis regime is steamrolling don't have the resources to fight against this kind of authoritarianism. But Disney does. The only way to deal with a bully is to punch and punch hard. I'll bet Disney knows that.

I'm not necessarily a fan of the mouse. And I disagree with the notion that corporations should have all the rights that individuals have. But the law is clear that corporations have free speech rights, with political speech receiving the highest level of constitutional protection that exists. If the governor of Florida punish citizens for political speech, free speech in the U.S is dead.

This is, as they say, a BFD.

I love that they mentioned Warren v. DeSantis in support of themselves (page 70). Lol. Fantastic.

Doctor Steuss wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:50 pm

I love that they mentioned Warren v. DeSantis in support of themselves (page 70). Lol. Fantastic.

Good catch. I love that they use quotations from DeSantis's own book as evidence of retaliatory intent. Hoist by his own petard.

RI,Thanks for providing us with that link to what is going on in the dispute between Disney and DeSantis in Florida. It makes clear that DeSantis has no rational or constitutional basis for his vendetta against Disney. I hope there is still enough honesty and integrity left in the U.S. Justice system, despite conservatives' long protracted efforts to shape it to their own self-serving purposes, for Disney to eventually win a well-deserved judgment in their favor.

It both galls me and terrifies me that DeSantis, who so stoutly claims to be anti-fascist, is (so far) managing to get away with actions and legislation that are directly out of the Fascist, Nazi playbooks!

It's a tragedy that Andrew Gillum so narrowly failed to defeat DeSantis in the 2018 Florida Gubernatorial race! I hope he gets another shot at it and succeeds!

It's somewhat encouraging that current Florida law prohibits a sitting Governor from running for U.S President, but, on the other hand, DeSantis is probably going to work to repeal that law, and even if he doesn't succeed in that, I would not be surprised if he has the audacity to try to openly violate that law. If he does succeed in running for President in '24, I hope that presents an opportunity for a special election to replace him with someone like Andrew Gillum or, at least, someone else less radical or tyrannical.

Res Ipsa wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:02 pm

Doctor Steuss wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:50 pm

I love that they mentioned Warren v. DeSantis in support of themselves (page 70). Lol. Fantastic.

Good catch. I love that they use quotations from DeSantis's own book as evidence of retaliatory intent. Hoist by his own petard.

It's a shame how that case ended, though.

By Marc Caputo

A federal judge ruled Friday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the free speech rights of a state attorney in Tampa by suspending the Democrat from office after he indicated he wouldn’t bring abortion-related prosecutions and de-prioritized taking some misdemeanor lawbreakers to court.

But it was still a win for the governor. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said federal law tied his hands in reversing the state-level suspension of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who could not be reached for comment.

Warren's suspension therefore stands and now he will have to plead his case to the Republican-controlled Florida Senate, which has the final say on whether to permanently remove him from office.

Hinkle’s complicated 59-page ruling made clear that the evidence showed DeSantis was punishing Warren for being a progressive prosecutor and his political speech in some cases, and that his reasons for doing so probably violated the Florida Constitution, which gives a governor broad powers to suspend an official for neglect of duty and incompetence.

Judge Hinkle ruled in favor of DeSantis despite acknowledging that he violated both the free speech rights of Andrew Warren and the Florida Constitution. I don't understand or agree with his arguments for doing so. This dampens my hope that Disney will ultimately triumph in their current dispute with DeSantis and his administration.