Florida
Disney hopes prosecutor’s free speech case against DeSantis helps lawsuit against governor
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney is hoping a recent decision bolstering a Florida prosecutor’s First Amendment case against Gov. Ron DeSantis helps its own free speech lawsuit against the governor.
A decision last week by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that revived a First Amendment challenge by former prosecutor Andrew Warren, who was suspended by DeSantis, should support Disney’s arguments against the governor, the company said Thursday in a court filing.
“The same values are at stake here,” Disney said.
After DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature took control of the governing district of Walt Disney World near Orlando, The Walt Disney Co. filed a First Amendment lawsuit in federal court in Tallahassee last year against DeSantis and his appointees to the district’s governing board. Before DeSantis appointed the new members to the board, it had been controlled by Disney supporters for more than five decades.
Disney claims its free speech rights were violated in retaliation for the company opposing the state’s new so-called Don’t Say Gay law, which bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president .
The governor’s attorneys have argued that the case should be dismissed, claiming DeSantis is immune since he doesn’t enforce any of the laws that removed supervision of the government from the Disney supporters.
A decision by the judge on whether the case should be dismissed could help determine who controls the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which performs municipal services such as planning, mosquito control and firefighting in the roughly 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) in central Florida that make up Disney World.
In response to Disney’s court filing last week, the DeSantis appointees contend that the Tampa prosecutor’s free speech case is different from Disney’s lawsuit. The prosecutor’s case dealt with actions taken by the governor, whereas Disney’s lawsuit involves legislation passed by the Legislature, the appointees said in a court filing.
“Unlike a challenge to one official’s unilateral action, Disney challenges laws enacted by a majority of lawmakers in both houses of the Florida Legislature and approved by both of Florida’s political branches,” the appointees said.
In its decision last week, the appeals court panel sent Warren’s case back to a trial judge in Tallahassee to determine whether the governor’s suspension was improperly focused on statements Warren signed along with other prosecutors opposing certain legislation to criminalize abortion and gender-affirming health care.
DeSantis cited those advocacy statements in his August 2022 suspension of Warren, a Democrat whom the governor replaced with Republican Suzy Lopez as the Tampa-based state attorney.
After his appeals court victory last week, Warren’s lawyers asked that the case be wrapped up quickly so he can decide whether to seek reelection as state attorney. Warren’s attorneys have asked the appeals judges to speed up deadlines for any subsequent filings and to immediately send the case back to the Tallahassee federal judge for a final decision. If the judge rules in Warren’s favor, he could get his prosecutor job back.
“One year remains on Mr. Warren’s term, and it should not be consumed by unnecessary delays in legal proceedings,” his lawyers wrote.
The 11th Circuit ordered DeSantis’ attorneys to respond to the request by Wednesday.
Disney and DeSantis’ board appointees are also involved in a state court lawsuit over control of the district.
New York
Sen. Menendez and wife seek separate trials on bribery charges
Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife are seeking separate trials on bribery charges they each face in a New York court.
The New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine, were each charged in the fall with aiding three New Jersey businessmen in return for cash, gold bars and a luxury car.
The couple and the businessmen, who also face charges, have all pleaded not guilty.
Nadine Menendez’s lawyers asked in papers filed late Monday for the severance on the grounds that the senator may want to testify at a trial scheduled to start in May and may divulge marital communications that she plans to keep secret.
Lawyers for Bob Menendez wrote that each spouse should face separate trials so that the senator does not provide information about marital communications during cross-examination that might be damaging to his wife’s defense.
They asked the trial judge not to force “him to choose between two fundamental rights: his right to testify in his own defense and his right not to testify against his spouse.”
The requests for separate trials were made as part of several pre-trial submissions late Monday by lawyers for defendants in the case.
Several days earlier, the senator’s lawyers had asked that charges in the case be dismissed. They added to those requests Monday, calling charges against him a “distortion of the truth.”
“Senator Menendez isn’t just ‘not guilty’ — he is innocent of these charges. Senator Menendez has never sold out his office or misused his authority or influence for personal financial gain,” they wrote.
Since the senator was first charged in September, he has been forced to relinquish his powerful post leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prosecutors have added to the bribery charges too, saying that he conspired with his wife and one businessman to secretly advance Egypt’s interests and that he acted favorably toward Qatar’s government to aid a businessman.
“Over and over again, the Indictment distorts or ignores evidence reflecting the Senator’s conduct in favor of American — and only American — interests and his decades of appropriate constituent services,” the lawyers said.
“Worse yet, the government knows it. The government has buried evidence proving Senator Menendez’s innocence, including evidence that directly undercuts the allegations in the Indictment. And the defense is prohibited from disclosing any of it to the public — necessitating a redacted filing under seal — even as the government has gone on its own media blitz to advance its false narrative,” the lawyers said.
The lawyers also said the trial should not be in New York since almost everything alleged to have occurred happened in New Jersey or outside New York.
“This case belongs in New Jersey,” they said.
The lawyers noted that Menendez won an earlier corruption case in New Jersey with “at least 10 jurors voting to acquit the Senator on the government’s hyped-up corruption charges.”
Prosecutors will reply to all the pre-trial motions with arguments of their own in several weeks.
Disney hopes prosecutor’s free speech case against DeSantis helps lawsuit against governor
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney is hoping a recent decision bolstering a Florida prosecutor’s First Amendment case against Gov. Ron DeSantis helps its own free speech lawsuit against the governor.
A decision last week by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that revived a First Amendment challenge by former prosecutor Andrew Warren, who was suspended by DeSantis, should support Disney’s arguments against the governor, the company said Thursday in a court filing.
“The same values are at stake here,” Disney said.
After DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature took control of the governing district of Walt Disney World near Orlando, The Walt Disney Co. filed a First Amendment lawsuit in federal court in Tallahassee last year against DeSantis and his appointees to the district’s governing board. Before DeSantis appointed the new members to the board, it had been controlled by Disney supporters for more than five decades.
Disney claims its free speech rights were violated in retaliation for the company opposing the state’s new so-called Don’t Say Gay law, which bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president .
The governor’s attorneys have argued that the case should be dismissed, claiming DeSantis is immune since he doesn’t enforce any of the laws that removed supervision of the government from the Disney supporters.
A decision by the judge on whether the case should be dismissed could help determine who controls the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which performs municipal services such as planning, mosquito control and firefighting in the roughly 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) in central Florida that make up Disney World.
In response to Disney’s court filing last week, the DeSantis appointees contend that the Tampa prosecutor’s free speech case is different from Disney’s lawsuit. The prosecutor’s case dealt with actions taken by the governor, whereas Disney’s lawsuit involves legislation passed by the Legislature, the appointees said in a court filing.
“Unlike a challenge to one official’s unilateral action, Disney challenges laws enacted by a majority of lawmakers in both houses of the Florida Legislature and approved by both of Florida’s political branches,” the appointees said.
In its decision last week, the appeals court panel sent Warren’s case back to a trial judge in Tallahassee to determine whether the governor’s suspension was improperly focused on statements Warren signed along with other prosecutors opposing certain legislation to criminalize abortion and gender-affirming health care.
DeSantis cited those advocacy statements in his August 2022 suspension of Warren, a Democrat whom the governor replaced with Republican Suzy Lopez as the Tampa-based state attorney.
After his appeals court victory last week, Warren’s lawyers asked that the case be wrapped up quickly so he can decide whether to seek reelection as state attorney. Warren’s attorneys have asked the appeals judges to speed up deadlines for any subsequent filings and to immediately send the case back to the Tallahassee federal judge for a final decision. If the judge rules in Warren’s favor, he could get his prosecutor job back.
“One year remains on Mr. Warren’s term, and it should not be consumed by unnecessary delays in legal proceedings,” his lawyers wrote.
The 11th Circuit ordered DeSantis’ attorneys to respond to the request by Wednesday.
Disney and DeSantis’ board appointees are also involved in a state court lawsuit over control of the district.
New York
Sen. Menendez and wife seek separate trials on bribery charges
Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife are seeking separate trials on bribery charges they each face in a New York court.
The New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine, were each charged in the fall with aiding three New Jersey businessmen in return for cash, gold bars and a luxury car.
The couple and the businessmen, who also face charges, have all pleaded not guilty.
Nadine Menendez’s lawyers asked in papers filed late Monday for the severance on the grounds that the senator may want to testify at a trial scheduled to start in May and may divulge marital communications that she plans to keep secret.
Lawyers for Bob Menendez wrote that each spouse should face separate trials so that the senator does not provide information about marital communications during cross-examination that might be damaging to his wife’s defense.
They asked the trial judge not to force “him to choose between two fundamental rights: his right to testify in his own defense and his right not to testify against his spouse.”
The requests for separate trials were made as part of several pre-trial submissions late Monday by lawyers for defendants in the case.
Several days earlier, the senator’s lawyers had asked that charges in the case be dismissed. They added to those requests Monday, calling charges against him a “distortion of the truth.”
“Senator Menendez isn’t just ‘not guilty’ — he is innocent of these charges. Senator Menendez has never sold out his office or misused his authority or influence for personal financial gain,” they wrote.
Since the senator was first charged in September, he has been forced to relinquish his powerful post leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prosecutors have added to the bribery charges too, saying that he conspired with his wife and one businessman to secretly advance Egypt’s interests and that he acted favorably toward Qatar’s government to aid a businessman.
“Over and over again, the Indictment distorts or ignores evidence reflecting the Senator’s conduct in favor of American — and only American — interests and his decades of appropriate constituent services,” the lawyers said.
“Worse yet, the government knows it. The government has buried evidence proving Senator Menendez’s innocence, including evidence that directly undercuts the allegations in the Indictment. And the defense is prohibited from disclosing any of it to the public — necessitating a redacted filing under seal — even as the government has gone on its own media blitz to advance its false narrative,” the lawyers said.
The lawyers also said the trial should not be in New York since almost everything alleged to have occurred happened in New Jersey or outside New York.
“This case belongs in New Jersey,” they said.
The lawyers noted that Menendez won an earlier corruption case in New Jersey with “at least 10 jurors voting to acquit the Senator on the government’s hyped-up corruption charges.”
Prosecutors will reply to all the pre-trial motions with arguments of their own in several weeks.
