This is complicated enough that it’s hard to tell if this is a sign Disney is losing the ongoing legal battle with Florida or not. Here’s what we do know. Disney has amended its federal lawsuit, dropping all but one claim.

Disney on Thursday amended its federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to focus solely on its First Amendment claim that the governor politically retaliated against the company.

Disney last week had asked to drop its other claims in the case, which concern a dispute over Walt Disney World’s development contracts, because they are being actively pursued in a separate state-level lawsuit in Florida…

The revision, which nixes four claims Disney had previously presented in the case, shrinks the company’s federal civil complaint to 48 pages, down from 84 in the prior version.

Disney announced last week that it wanted to make this change but there weren’t allowed to do so without consulting the other side.

On Sept. 1, federal Judge Allen Winsor rejected Disney’s motion to narrow the lawsuit because of a procedural rule requiring it to confer with the state’s lawyers.

In a statement Thursday, officials with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said they accepted Disney’s proposal.

“Disney’s latest legal move puts them in line with the position of what the district has been advocating for months now: that these matters should be decided in state court,” said Alexei Woltornist, a spokesman for the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. “We hope this helps expedite justice for the people of Florida.”

So Disney got what it wanted but only after Florida’s lawyers agreed. This battle goes all the way back to the long term agreements a Disney-led board made just before the DeSantis-appointed board took over and nullified those agreements. Disney sued in federal court but the DeSantis board countersued in state court.

The DeSantis board countersued in Florida state court days later. It argued that Disney lacked authority to enter into the contracts and that the prior board failed to give proper notice that it was crafting them. Disney maintains that it hashed out the deals in public forums in compliance with the law.

Last month, Disney filed counterclaims in that state-level case. The company seeks damages over the board’s alleged breach of its contracts, and it wants the court to order the district to comply with the deals.

So Disney has basically shifted from federal court to state court but is continuing the battle. Yesterday, the DeSantis appointed board asked the state court to dismiss Disney’s counter-claims:

“All of Disney’s counterclaims fail as a matter of law,” attorneys for the district board wrote in a court filing Wednesday in circuit court in Orange County, Florida.

That’s mainly because Disney’s contracts are “void as a matter of Florida law and therefore have never had any legal force or existence,” the board wrote.

So the legal battle continues but it does seem as if lawyers for the state board have dragged the battle into their preferred forum. Getting to the obvious question, is this a win for Disney or a loss? Dan McLaughlin says its a loss:

3. Under Hubbard, "when a statute is facially
constitutional, a plaintiff cannot bring a free-speech
challenge by claiming that the lawmakers
who passed it acted with a constitutionally
impermissible purpose."

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 7, 2023

5. Put simply, Disney got outlawyered here by DeSantis's team. The people who told you it had a slam-dunk federal case have some egg on their faces right now.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 7, 2023