Defendants move to disqualify Chief Judge Mark E. Walker (the Court) under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) because the Court’s impartiality in this matter might reasonably be questioned. This case involves claims that Defendants retaliated against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S., Inc. based on Disney’s viewpoints. Yet two previous times, in two unrelated cases, the Court sua sponte offered “Disney” as an example of state retaliation. Those remarks—each derived from extrajudicial sources—were on the record, in open court, and could reasonably imply that the Court has prejudged the retaliation question here. Because that question is now before this Court, and because that question involves highly publicized matters of great interest to Florida’s citizens, the Court should disqualify itself to prevent even the appearance of impropriety. …

The Court thus contrasted the claims in Link (where the alleged retaliation was too speculative) with the State’s “tak[ing] away Disney’s special status because they’re woke” (an example where retaliation supposedly was not speculative). The hearing at which the Court drew that comparison came a few days after legislators began publicly calling for the dissolution of Reedy Creek,2 and just a day after the Governor publicly refuted the idea that dissolving RCID would be “retaliatory.”3 Those state-official remarks about RCID were widely reported in the news cycles surrounding the Link preliminary-injunction hearing, as were many similar statements.

And indeed, just a few weeks later, the State enacted Senate Bill 4C, which dissolved RCID and five other special districts, effective June 1, 2023, unless the Legislature took later action. See Ch. 2022-266, § 2, Laws of Fla.

[There are more examples in the motion, but one should be sufficient. It’s an interesting dilemma for Walker, who’s clearly itching for this case and arguably took it on purpose to torment the governor. Walker has been pretty indiscreet about his hostility to DeSantis in matters involving Disney, which is probably why Disney filed in the Northern District of Florida rather than in the closer Middle District of Florida, located in Fort Myers. I’d guess that DeSantis’ office has a pretty good argument here, and it will be tough to ignore Walker’s earlier prejudice in these statements. And if Walker refuses to DQ himself, the 11th Circuit could very well order his removal on the basis of these prior statements. The motion is at the link for the headline, and was sent out to media by the Executive Office, including to me. — Ed]