Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has filed for the disqualification of Chief US District Judge Mark Walker, who is presiding over the lawsuit filed against him by Disney. The lawsuit alleges a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power” against the company and resultant restructuring of Disney’s central Florida district, following DeSantis’ signing of a bill into law that the company opposed. DeSantis’s legal team claims that Judge Walker’s words suggest he has already prejudged the case. When examining the Disney lawsuit, the governor’s lawyers argued that the judge’s alleged extrajudicial comments, derived from previous cases, could so blur his impartiality as to “prevent even the appearance of impropriety.”
Walker was appointed in 2012 by President Barack Obama to serve at the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida, before eventually becoming the chief judge in 2018. This case marks one of two involving lawsuits filed by Disney and one by DeSantis against each other. In the other case, DeSantis requested recusal of Judge John Cooper, who has reportedly criticised legislation that Florida has instituted to ban “woke” content in schools, with Cooper previously stating that he believed the dismissal of Disney’s status was retaliatory. DeSantis has requested that Cooper’s court rulings be stayed if he does not recuse himself; the judge has not commented on the matter.
On July 2022, Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis and other Florida officials, claiming that the state’s ban on “woke” content in schools violates the company’s right to free speech and is unconstitutional. It also contested the decision to revoke Disney’s special district status, which had bestowed tax exemptions and benefits on the company. As punishment for publicly opposing the aforementioned legislation, DeSantis revoked the Disney-appointed governing body, appointing a new board of supervisors to oversee Disney World’s previously self-governed district. Disney, in turn, reciprocated by suing DeSantis and the Disney-appointed board, alleging that they had violated the firm’s rights to free speech and the contracts clause.
The feud between DeSantis and Disney has been ongoing for over a year and could impact the former’s expected presidential bid in the coming months. In the 1960s, Florida’s legislature created the self-governing district to bolster the proposed creation of a futuristic city for Disney World, which the company never built, and instead, morphed into the company’s second theme park, which opened in 1982.
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