(Photo
by
Chip
Somodevilla/Getty
Images)
It
began
with
Ron
DeSantis
swearing
vengeance
on
Disney
for
mildly
chastising
his
anti-gay
people
law.
After
detours
into
Lilibet
of
Sussex
and
the
Rule
Against
Perpetuities,
remedial
civil
procedure
screw-ups,
and
the
United
States
Supreme
Court
sending
a
stray
directly
at
DeSantis,
the
matter
ends
—
much
like
the
DeSantis
presidential
campaign
—
not
with
a
bang
but
with
a
whimper.
Because
Disney
agreed
to
forfeit
its
headline-grabbing
and
hilarious
deal
with
the
Central
Florida
Tourism
Oversight
District
(then
known
as
the
Reedy
Creek
Improvement
District),
granting
Disney
functional
control
over
the
district
until
21
years
after
the
death
of
the
last
surviving
descendent
of
King
Charles,
DeSantis
supporters
are
framing
the
agreement
as
a
victory.
For
example,
one
tipster
wrote
in:
Hey
Jo
,
here’s
a
tip.
Did
you
see
that
Ron
DeSantis
just
cleaned
Disney’s
clock?
Makes
you
look
like
a
gas
bag
Given
his
inability
to
spell
a
three-letter
word,
it
won’t
surprise
you
to
learn
that
he
did
not
actually
read
and
understand
the
settlement
agreement
(helpfully
scanned
by
Politico).
Thankfully,
we’re
always
here
to
help
him
out.
But
first,
some
background.
There
was
a
time,
not
too
long
ago,
where
Ron
DeSantis
believed
he
could
be
president.
It
may
be
hard
to
remember
that
after
he
spent
the
next
several
months
getting
ritualistically
humiliated
by
Donald
Trump,
but
it
was
true!
And
to
bolster
his
profile,
he
embarked
on
a
series
of
policies
to
fight
“wokeness”
including
the
Don’t
Say
Gay
bill,
an
education
provision
banning
schools
from
acknowledging
that
gay
people
exist.
It
has
since
been
largely
overturned
because,
like
all
of
DeSantis’s
attempts
to
govern
from
firing
prosecutors
to
forcing
cruise
lines
to
give
everyone
COVID,
his
policies
seem
destined
to
get
trounced
in
court.
Disney
offered
the
slightest
of
critiques
of
the
Don’t
Say
Gay
bill
and
DeSantis
decided
to
seek
revenge,
targeting
the
Reedy
Creek
Improvement
District.
To
oversimplify
the
purpose
of
the
entity,
Disney
owns
lots
and
lots
of
land
in
central
Florida
and
that
land
needs
government
services
like
water,
and
sewers,
and
firefighters.
Rather
than
force
some
neighboring
town
to
fork
over
property
taxes
to
pay
for
Disney’s
private
empire,
the
company
had
its
own
quasi-governmental
district.
They
paid
for
all
the
services
and
in
return
those
expenditures
were
more
or
less
treated
like
government
expenditures
saving
the
company
tax
dollars.
Everyone
won.
But
it
was
something
that
Disney
had
that
DeSantis
could
mess
up.
He
first
made
a
public
bid
to
eliminate
the
tax
district.
After
learning
that
this
would
saddle
Florida
taxpayers
with
millions
in
debt
—
something
he
probably
should’ve
researched
before
staking
his
reputation
on
it
—
he
came
up
with
the
idea
of
saving
the
district
but
replacing
all
its
board
members
with
cronies
who
would
take
away
or
otherwise
frustrate
key
permits
that
Disney
relied
upon
like
its
water
management
rights.
More
on
that
later.
Since
DeSantis
and
the
new
board
cared
less
about
governing
than
symbolic
posturing,
they
never
bothered
to
pay
attention
as
the
outgoing
board
publicly
noticed
meetings
to
hand
power
over
to
Disney
directly.
As
a
Florida
corporate
law
expert
—
AND
REPUBLICAN
—
noted
at
the
time,
Disney’s
actions
were
airtight
legal
under
existing
law.
The
Republican
legislature
tried
to
change
that
and
that’s
when
everything
descended
into
lawsuits.
Now,
with
Disney
giving
up
on
its
deals
with
the
outgoing
board,
has
DeSantis
really
won?
Consider
the
settlement.
The
first
prong
of
this
settlement
actually
fell
into
place
before
yesterday,
when
DeSantis
appointed
Stephanie
Kopelousos
to
run
the
district,
replacing
Glen
Gilzean,
who
DeSantis
originally
put
in
the
job
before
an
ethics
panel
ruled
that
he
was
serving
illegally.
Kopelousos
is
a
Disney-applauded
hire,
having
spent
her
career
in
the
DeSantis
orbit
shielding
Disney
from
the
governor’s
half-baked
schemes,
including
carving
them
out
of
the
big
“tech
wokeness”
bill
that
the
Supreme
Court
is
about
to
strike
down
anyway.
So
now,
instead
of
being
bossed
around
by
board
members
like
the
guy
who
said
fluoride
makes
kids
gay,
Disney
has
to
deal
with
a
known
government
ally
who
is
almost
certainly
just
warming
her
resume
to
become
a
Disney
or
Universal
lobbyist
down
the
road.
Not
an
auspicious
beginning
for
the
DeSantis
victory
crowd.
Second,
the
deal
doesn’t
just
invalidate
Disney’s
deals
with
the
outgoing
board,
but
also
everything
the
new
board
has
tried
to
do.
Under
the
terms
of
the
agreement,
everything
reverts
to
the
state
of
play
in
2020
under
the
old
Disney
board
and
charges
Kopelousos
to
run
things
from
there.
Theoretically,
the
new
entity
could
still
try
to
mess
with
Disney,
however…
7.
Mitigation
Credits.
As
a
material
inducement
to
Disney
in
entering
into
the
Agreement,
the
District
acknowledges
Disney
is
the
owner
of,
and
the
District
shall
not
prohibit
or
impede,
but
rather
assist
in
the
use
of,
Long-Term
Permit
Mitigation
Credits
or
other
entitlements
created
through:a)
South
Florida
Water
Management
District
Environmental
Resource
Permits
Nos.
48-00714-S,
48-00714-P,
and/or
and
48-00714-8-22,
as
amended;
b)
Department
of
the
Army
Permit
199101901
(IP-GS)
and/or
SA3-1991-01901
(SP-TSD),
as
amended;
c)
State
of
Florida
Game
and
Fresh
Water
Fish
Commission
Permits
Nos.
OSC-4,
OSC-SSC-1,
and/or
OSC-TSR-1,
as
amended.
As
a
term
of
the
settlement,
the
new
entity
expressly
forfeits
its
right
to
do
the
sort
of
critical
mayhem
they
hoped
to
accomplish
and
indeed
to
“rather
assist”
Disney
in
securing
the
substantive
benefits
Disney
wanted
all
along.
Strike
two.
Finally,
the
agreement
takes
the
unusual
step
of
NOT
ending
all
the
pending
litigation
and
releasing
everyone
from
liability.
8.
Federal
Lawsuit.
Disney
agrees
to
seek,
and
the
District
will
not
oppose,
permission
from
the
court
to
defer
briefing
in
Disney’s
pending
federal
appeal
captioned
as
Walt
Disney
Parks
and
Resorts
U.S.,
Inc.
v.
Governor,
State
of
Florida
et
at,
Case
No.
24-10342
(11th
Cir.)
(“Federal
Lawsuit”),
pending
negotiations
among
other
matters
of
a
new
development
agreement
between
Disney
and
the
District.
The
Eleventh
Circuit
appeal
is
the
strongest
of
the
various
lawsuits.
Trump
judge
Judge
Allen
Winsor,
claimed
that
a
law
only
and
specifically
impacting
Disney-run
Reedy
Creek
could
not
be
considered
targeted
at
Disney
because
the
word
“Disney”
isn’t
in
the
actual
legislation.
There
might
be
an
appellate
panel
willing
to
buy
Winsor
rewriting
civil
procedure
to
benefit
DeSantis,
but
it’s
not
likely.
The
substance
of
the
case
alleges
that
the
new
board
breached
Disney’s
First
Amendment
rights
by
retaliating
against
it
over
the
Don’t
Say
Gay
law.
So
they
maintain
the
lawsuit
predicated
on
the
appearance
of
retaliation
“pending
negotiations
among
other
matters
of
a
new
development
agreement
between
Disney
and
the
District.”
In
other
words,
Disney
gets
a
new,
friendly
negotiating
partner,
all
the
board’s
rules
tossed,
a
commitment
that
the
entity
can’t
mess
with
the
interests
Disney
cared
about,
and
the
parties
agree
that
the
company
can
maintain
its
most
powerful
lawsuit
as
a
cocked
gun
to
the
temple
of
the
new
entity
to
be
invoked
if
the
negotiations
don’t
go
Disney’s
way.
As
clock
cleanings
go,
it’s
more
like
DeSantis
performing
community
service
scrubbing
down
the
Main
Street
USA
clocks
and
then
telling
Bob
Iger,
“Thank
you,
sir,
may
I
have
another?”
Though
he
does
get
to
walk
away
mildly
saving
face
that
he’s
changed
the
name
on
top
of
the
tax
district
letterhead.
And
after
getting
mollywhopped
by
Nikki
Haley
of
all
people,
he’s
going
to
take
any
W
he
can
get.
(Settlement
Agreement
on
the
next
page.)
Earlier: Ron
DeSantis
So
Sure
He’s
Going
To
Win
Disney
Lawsuit
That
He’s
Publicly
Begging
Bob
Iger
To
Drop
It
Supreme
Court
Subtweets
Ron
DeSantis
That
He’s
Totally
Losing
To
Disney
Disney
Litigators
Take
Their
Turn
Beating
The
Hell
Out
Of
Ron
DeSantis
With
New
Federal
Lawsuit
We
Shouldn’t
Have
To
Choose
Between
Disney
Whipping
DeSantis
And
A
Dickensian
Hellscape
Judge
In
Disney’s
Case
Against
Ron
DeSantis
Recuses
Himself
Because
Father’s
Brother’s
Nephew’s
Cousin’s
Former
Roommate
Owns
30
Shares
Of
Disney
Disney’s
Lawyers
Are
Better
Than
Ron
DeSantis’s
Lawyers
Disney
Lawyers
Seem
Honestly
Shocked
That
Ron
DeSantis
Legal
Team
Is
So
Bad
At
This
DeSantis
Crony
Overseeing
Disney
Tax
District
Serving
Illegally
Because
OF
COURSE!
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
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news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
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Executive
Search.