TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, U.S. District Court Judge Allen Winsor issued an opinion dismissing the federal case Disney brought against Governor DeSantis. To read the opinion from Judge Winsor, click here.
In the opinion, Judge Winsor cited numerous errors in Disney’s arguments, including the fact that Disney is “not the district’s only landowner, and other landowners within the district are affected by the same laws —” “the statute did ‘not implicate any constitutionally protected conduct'” and was therefore constitutional; and “courts shouldn’t look to a law’s legislative history to find an illegitimate motivation for an otherwise constitutional statute.”
The dismissal order states, “In short, Disney lacks standing to sue the Governor or the Secretary, and its claims against the CFTOD Defendants fail on the merits because “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.” In re Hubbard, 803 F.3d 1298, 1312 (11th Cir. 2015).
purpose.” In re Hubbard, 803 F.3d 1298, 1312 (11th Cir. 2015).
