DeSantis proposes Disney trial schedule that places begin date in 2025, after elections

ORLANDO, Fla. — Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis have requested {that a} trial involving Disney be postponed till the center of 2025, properly after the GOP presidential nomination race wraps up and voters have picked a winner within the November 2024 basic election.

In a Tallahassee federal court docket submitting Tuesday, attorneys for the Florida governor, who’s in search of 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 have been violated by the takeover of its governing district in retaliation for opposing the so-called Don’t Say Gay laws DeSantis championed. In the identical submitting, Disney proposed a July 15, 2024, trial date, which is across the identical time because the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Both sides additionally disagreed about when a movement ought to be filed asking the choose to decide in favor of 1 facet with no full trial. Disney proposed submitting its movement for abstract judgment initially of April 2024, whereas DeSantis’ attorneys mentioned it ought to be precisely a yr 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 yr following a yearlong feud between the corporate and DeSantis. The battle started final yr after Disney, beset by important 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 Gay.

As punishment, DeSantis took over the district via laws handed by the Republican-led Legislature and appointed a brand new board of supervisors to supervise municipal providers for the sprawling theme parks and accommodations. But earlier than the brand new board got here in, the corporate made agreements with earlier oversight board members who have 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In response, DeSantis and Florida lawmakers handed laws that repealed these agreements.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.