I am not always a big fan of Ian Millhiser, who writes about legal issues for Vox. He tends to sound the alarm over practically every Supreme Court decision, declaring it not just obviously wrong but perhaps the most dangerous ruling this century. After a while you tend to shut out this kind of thing.
But God knows he's right about the way Florida has treated Disney over Disney's opposition to its "Don't Say Gay" law. By explicitly punishing Disney for its public opinion, it is using official state power to crush free speech:
This isn’t a close case.
At the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature voted this week to punish one of the world’s biggest producers of entertainment and pop culture, because DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republicans disagreed with that producer’s First Amendment-protected speech. DeSantis signed the bill into law on Friday.
Florida’s decision to strip a government benefit from Disney because, in DeSantis’s words, Disney expressed “woke” opinions and “tried to attack me to advance their woke agenda,” is unconstitutional. And it’s not a close case.
As the Supreme Court said in Hartman v. Moore (2006), “official reprisal for protected speech ‘offends the Constitution [because] it threatens to inhibit exercise of the protected right.’” Nor does it matter how the government retaliates against a person or business who expresses an opinion that the government does not like — any official retaliation against someone because they engaged in First Amendment-protected speech is unconstitutional.
Oddly enough, this is a case where I think Millhiser is being too cool headed. This is an exceptionally dangerous action by DeSantis and the Florida legislature and I hope Disney fights it in court. It should certainly be an easy victory. Even a stone conservative Trump appointed judge should rule Florida's action illegal with barely a second thought.
The response of the conservative community, as usual, has been disappointing. There have been a few conservatives who oppose DeSantis's action, but their opposition has mostly been pretty tepid. Meanwhile, most conservatives have stayed quiet in hopes of avoiding having to take any stand at all.
This is mind boggling no matter what you think of the Florida law and no matter what you think of Disney's public response. A state has used its official power to take revenge against a company that expressed an opinion it disliked. It's flabbergasting. It's the behavior of an autocrat. It's blatantly illegal. Ron DeSantis ought to be in prison for abuse of power over his role in all this.
The fact that this is getting so little attention baffles me. Am I one of the few who understands just how bad this is? Or am I wrong and this isn't really a big deal? Someone please help me out.
It's interesting that these rightwing "populists" (DeSantis, Cruz, Cotton, Hawley) are all graduates of the Ivy League.
Hawley and DeSantis have Jewish history. Cruz is partly black and Basque. Cotton Scott irish . Not quite the wasps we are looking for.
Trump too (UPenn).
Leo, another thing you can do is stop calling liberals/progressive "far left". Neither is DeSantis "the colored boy" far right.
Yes, libtards have tried some of the same tricks. It's partly why DeSantis gate is old news.
Seems like 90% of the time KD's posts boil down to "that thing you're worried about isn't really a big deal" and after a while you tend to shut out that kind of thing.
That'd be stupid of you.
In Florida, the only people who can dissolve a special taxing district are the property holders of that district. In this case, the property holder is the Disney Corporation. Since they did not vote to dissolve the district, it will continue to exist after 2023. Neither the legislature nor the governor have the power to dissolve these districts.
From what I've read from Florida lawyers, it would seem to be the case. The issue is who would have standing. I don't know Florida law (lawyers from there, please feel free to chime in) but generally speaking only Disney would have standing to sue to reverse the legislative action. So we're basically in the same place—Disney can take the billion dollars and bend the knee or it can try to renounce the $1 billion gift from the state and alienate the ruling party. My money's still on the "take the money" option.
The dissolution law is only a paragraph or two long, and the main part starts, “Notwithstanding [that law that requires a vote], these districts are dissolved : . . .”]
This just in:
Fascists don't care about the First Amendment if it doesn't benefit themselves.
How about the naked extortion by House Rs telling the Twitter board to knuckle under to the Musk offer, or be subject to endless bullshit interrogations under oath as soon as the Judiciary Committee has an R Chair again.
The Real Issues between Disney and DeathSentence, and The REAL Long Term Effects of this Stupidity for Florida, can be found in this video:
https://youtu.be/2sCfOL_MAqY
Somewhat ironic because right wing loves corporations to spend money expressing opinions, qv Citizens United. Until those opinions don’t jibe.
Paul Krugman has said basically the same thing, Kevin, so you're in good company.