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ORLANDO — Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis have requested {that a} trial involving Disney be postponed till the center of 2025, effectively after the GOP presidential nomination race wraps up and voters have picked a winner within the November 2024 normal election.
In a Tallahassee federal courtroom submitting Tuesday, attorneys for the Florida governor, who’s searching for the Republican nomination, and his appointees to a board that governs Disney World outlined a proposed schedule that requests an Aug. 4, 2025, trial date.
Disney claims in its lawsuit that its free speech rights had been violated by the takeover of its governing district in retaliation for opposing the so-called Don’t Say Homosexual laws DeSantis championed. In the identical submitting, Disney proposed a July 15, 2024, trial date, which is across the identical time because the Republican Nationwide Conference in Milwaukee.
Each side additionally disagreed about when a movement must be filed asking the choose to decide in favor of 1 aspect with out a full trial. Disney proposed submitting its movement for abstract judgment initially of April 2024, whereas DeSantis’ attorneys mentioned it must be precisely a 12 months later, initially of April 2025.
Earlier this week, DeSantis and his appointees to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District requested the choose to dismiss the lawsuit, put it on maintain or drop them as defendants.
The DeSantis appointees took over the Disney World governing board earlier this 12 months following a yearlong feud between the corporate and DeSantis. The combat started final 12 months after Disney, beset by vital strain internally and externally, publicly opposed a state regulation banning classroom classes on sexual orientation and gender id in early grades, a coverage critics name Don’t Say Homosexual.
As punishment, DeSantis took over the district by means of laws handed by the Republican-led Legislature and appointed a brand new board of supervisors to supervise municipal companies for the sprawling theme parks and lodges. However earlier than the brand new board got here in, the corporate made agreements with earlier oversight board members who had been Disney supporters that stripped the brand new supervisors of their authority over design and development.
In response, DeSantis and Florida lawmakers handed laws that repealed these agreements.
Disney sued DeSantis and the five-member board, asking a federal choose to void the governor’s takeover of the theme park district, in addition to the brand new oversight board’s actions, on the grounds that they violated the corporate’s free speech rights.
The board sued Disney in state courtroom in an effort to keep up its management of development and design at Disney World.
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Related Press.
Comply with Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
