The Walt Disney Company’s (NYSE: DIS) fight with Floria Governor Ron DeSantis took a new turn on Tuesday after the entertainment giant amended its free speech lawsuit against DeSantis and now references legislation that was passed last week by Florida lawmakers that revoked agreements between Disney and a previous oversight board (consisting of Disney supporters) which had given the company control over design and construction at Disney World.
The amended lawsuit will also now include a measure passed by Florida last week that had given the state the authority to inspect Disney World’s monorail system. This inspection had previously been conducted in-house.
The amended lawsuit states that the new measures passed by Florida lawmakers “was precision-engineered to target Disney alone, just as Governor DeSantis intended and previewed.”
The Disney lawsuit asks the federal judge to grant void Governor DeSantis’ takeover of the “theme park district, as well as the oversight board’s actions, on the grounds that they were violations of company’s free speech rights.”
Governor DeSantis had earlier warned Disney that the state could make its business very difficult after the company’s opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” laws.
Analysts remain bullish about DIS stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 18 Buys and three Holds.
