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Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis Just Got Sued For the Second Time

florida governor ron desantis angry as he watches mickey mouse run in courtroom full of lawyers

April 26 may very well go down in history as “Governor Ron DeSantis Day,” or more appropriately, “Not Good to Be Governor Ron DeSantis Day,” as the Florida governor who is engaged in a back-and-forth battle with The Walt Disney Company has just been sued for the second time in one day.

mickey mouse in a courtroom with lawyers

Credit: Mike Tadasco via MidJourney AI

The 116th day of the year falls on April 26, if you’re going by the Gregorian calendar, and 249 days remain in the calendar year 2023. Several celebrities celebrate were born on April 26, including actors Kevin James, Channing Tatum, Jet Li, and Giancarlo Esposito (The Mandalorian), as well as former First Lady Melania Trump and funny lady Carol Burnett. April 26 is a reasonably busy day in history, too. In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin who took the life of then-President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and lost his life. Fifty years later, on April 26, 1915, Italy secretly signed a treaty, joining the Allied Forces in World War I.

Some 53 years later, on April 26, 1968, students seized the administration building at Ohio State University, and on the same date in 1986, the worst disaster in the nuclear power generation took place as the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the U.S.S.R., exploded, killing 31 and leaving much of Western Europe with radioactive contamination.

Chernobyl Disaster (1986) | PreventionWeb

Bumper cars left behind at a theme park following the Chernobyl explosion/Credit: PreventionWeb

Now, April 26 is a bit of history in the making all over again. On Wednesday morning, The Walt Disney Company filed suit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The suit is the latest move in the ongoing and escalating battle between Disney and Florida lawmakers that began in March 2022. The suit alleges that “a targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech—now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”

As part of the complaint, The Walt Disney Company says Disney is being “forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment.”

RELATED: Governor DeSantis & the Florida Legislature Make it Illegal For Disney World to Build a Fifth Theme Park in Central Florida

cinderella castle magic kingdom

Credit: PDP Orlando

Almost immediately following the announcement of the suit by national news outlets, Disney fans flooded Twitter with #GoDisney, signaling their support of Disney’s decision to take legal action against the Florida governor and his associates. But in a strange coincidence, Governor DeSantis was sued yet again on Wednesday afternoon, this time by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The ACLU is suing Florida over the state’s voter registration system, which, according to the organization, “violates the National Voter Registration Act because it fails to provide information on voter eligibility to people with past [criminal] convictions.” In a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, the ACLU said, “Florida, we’ll see you in court.”

As both suits has just been filed, further details are not available at this time, and as these suits represent two different developing stories, this site will share more information as it becomes available.

About Becky Burkett

Becky's from the Lone Star State and has been writing since she was 10 and encountered her first Disney Park when she was 11. It was love at first Main Street Electrical Parade. Joy is blank lined journals, 0.7 mm pens, and all things Walt, Woody and Buzz, PIXAR, Imagineering, Sleeping Beauty (make it blue!), Disney Parks history and EPCOT. At Disney World, you'll find her croonin' with the birdies at the Enchanted Tiki Room or hangin' with Woody and the gang at Toy Story Land. If you can dream, you really can do it!