Judge Dismisses Disney’s Suit Against DeSantis

Trump Appointee Sides with Bigots.

Gay Day at Walt Disney World

In a stunning turn of events a Federal Judge in Florida has thrown out the Walt Disney Company’s free speech suit against Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

When, last year, the Governor penalized the Walt Disney World complex in Florida for speaking out against the state’s discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” law by removing the governing structure that oversaw the company’s property and replacing it with right-wing cronies appointed by the DeSantis — including the law’s co-author, disgraced “Mom’s for Liberty” founder Bridget Zeigler — Disney filed suit to say that the move was a punitive reaction to the corporation’s right to free speech.
Which it was.
Today, Judge Allen Winsor of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee, an appointee of accused felon Donald Trump, dismissed the case saying:

“It is settled law that when a statute is facially constitutional, a plaintiff cannot bring a free-speech challenge by claiming that the lawmakers who passed it acted with a constitutionally impermissible purpose.”

Judge Winsor was formerly the state’s solicitor general where, notably, he defended a state ban on same-sex marriages and argued, in a legal brief, that recognizing same-sex marriages from other states would impose “significant legal harm” to the State of Florida.

Judge Allen Winsor

In other words, if the thing the government does to punish you is a legal act, their reasoning for it cannot be questioned.

This is, of course, nonsense.

Disney lawyers, in a statement, have responded:

“This is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here. If left unchallenged, 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.”

They will appeal.

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