The battle between The Walt Disney Company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the future of Walt Disney World has seen what could turn out to be a significant development. The DeSantis legal team had moved to disqualify Judge Mark E. Walker who was set to hear the dueling lawsuits between the two sides, on the grounds that he was biased. Walked has now ruled that he will disqualify himself, though he did it for reasons unrelated to what the DeSantis camp was claiming, and he took a shot at the Governor’s legal team on his way out the door, accusing them of “rank judge shopping”.
The motion to disqualify Judge Walker was based on the argument that he had made comments on the record in other cases that used the ongoing battle between Walt Disney World and Ron DeSantis as an example of state retaliation, exactly what Disney is claiming they are on the receiving end of in their lawsuit against DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Disney opposed the motion, saying that the Judge’s comments did not rise to the level of requiring disqualification.
According to the New York Times, Walker stated that while he did not believe his comments impacted his ability to be impartial, he was removing himself from the case after learning that he had a family member that owned Disney stock, and since the outcome of the case is likely to have a financial impact on Disney, he needed to step aside.
While the DeSantis team may have gotten what they wanted, the Judge clearly felt that the move to disqualify him was disingenuous. The Judge seems to feel the motion to remove him was politically and not legally motivated. Walker was appointed to the federal bench by Barack Obama, which may be an issue for the Republican governor and Presidential candidate.
Once a new Judge is assigned to the case, assuming that there are no new moves to disqualify that Judge, they already have some important work in front of them. Disney has moved to have the countersuit against it from the CFTOD dismissed. The suit argues that a land deal put in place between Disney World and the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the precursor to the CFTOD before DeSantis signed a law replacing it, should be ruled invalid. Disney argues the lawsuit is moot because another recent Florida law was specifically passed to allow the new board to undo the deal, so the lawsuit essentially accomplishes nothing.
Judge Walker had made the decision to not make any significant decisions regarding the lawsuits before making a ruling on the disqualification, likely because if he had, and then he disqualified himself, everything would end up being litigated anyway. Now that decision has been made, the legal proceedings may move forward.
While the legal battle is unlikely to have a significant impact on the day-to-day operations of Walt Disney World, it likely will have significant implications for the long-term plans for the resort. Disney CEO Bob Iger has intimated that Disney’s current plan to spend tens of billions and hire tens of thousands of people in Florida in the next decade could be reassessed if it’s decided that effort and money should be spent elsewhere. Disney has already put an end to plans to move 2,000 Disney Cast Members from California to Florida. The change in business climate was cited as one of the reasons for the decision.
