Disney needs to maintain confidential any proprietary info or commerce secrets and techniques that comes out of its state court docket combat with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointees over who controls the governing district at Walt Disney World.
The leisure large requested a state court docket decide on Friday for a protecting order permitting it to designate paperwork and depositions as confidential and requiring events dealing with them to signal a nondisclosure settlement.
The litigation is probably going going to contain the disclosure of commerce secrets and techniques, in addition to technical, monetary and private info, which may lead to “significant harm” if they’re made public, Disney mentioned in its request. The request was unopposed by the DeSantis appointees.
Disney supporters had run the district, which gives municipal providers comparable to firefighting, planning and mosquito management, for greater than 5 many years after the Legislature created it in 1967. However laws handed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by DeSantis transferred control of the district’s board from Disney supporters to DeSantis appointees final yr.
Disney mentioned it was in retaliation for the corporate publicly opposing the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. The 2022 regulation banned classroom classes on sexual orientation and gender identification in early grades and was championed by DeSantis, who had used Disney as a punching bag in speeches on the marketing campaign path till he just lately suspended his campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Earlier than management of the district modified arms from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees early final yr, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting management over design and building at Disney World to the corporate. The brand new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the corporate in state court docket in Orlando to have the contracts voided.
Disney has filed counterclaims that embody asking the state court docket to declare the agreements legitimate and enforceable.
Individually, Disney had a filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the corporate’s free speech rights had been violated. A federal decide in Tallahassee final week dismissed the lawsuit, saying Disney lacked standing in its claims in opposition to DeSantis and its declare in opposition to the DeSantis appointees lacked advantage.
Disney is appealing the ruling.
