(Headline USA) Disney asked a state court judge on Friday for a protective order allowing it to designate documents and depositions as confidential and requiring parties handling them to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
The entertainment giant wants to keep confidential any trade secrets or proprietary information that come out of its state court fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis’s appointees over who controls the governing district at Walt Disney World.
The litigation is likely going to involve the disclosure of trade secrets, as well as technical, financial and personal information, which could result in “significant harm” if they were made public, Disney said in its request. The request was unopposed by the DeSantis appointees.
Disney supporters had run the district, which provides municipal services such as firefighting, planning and mosquito control, for more than five decades after the state legislature created it in 1967 as part of a sweetheart deal to give the company extra incentive to invest in the state.
But legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by DeSantis transferred control of the district’s board from Disney supporters to DeSantis appointees last year.
Disney claimed it was in retaliation for the company publicly opposing the state’s anti-grooming law, which restricted teachers in grades 3 and below from incorporating sexuality into their classroom curricula.
Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees early last year, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company. The new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the company in state court in Orlando to have the contracts voided.
Disney has filed counterclaims that include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable. Separately, Disney had a filed a federal lawsuit against DeSantis and his appointees claiming the company’s free speech rights were violated.
A federal judge in Tallahassee last week dismissed that lawsuit, saying Disney lacked standing in its claims against DeSantis and that its claim against the DeSantis appointees lacked merit.
Disney is appealing the ruling.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
