HomeDisney NewsDisney Says Judge Should Not Be Disqualified After DeSantis Motions For Recusal

Disney Says Judge Should Not Be Disqualified After DeSantis Motions For Recusal

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Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are back at it again. This time it’s in regard to the judge overseeing the Disney lawsuit. Last week John Guard, the Florida chief deputy attorney general, filed a motion for the judge on Disney’s lawsuit, Mark E. Walker, to recuse himself over comments he has made about the situation between Disney and DeSantis during other cases. DeSantis’ side argues a bias, while Disney’s attorneys argue that comments come “nowhere close” to the threshold of bias.

According to the filings, Judge Walker has allegedly made remarks in other hearings that indeed could be argued as biased. John Guard and their attorneys said his comments “could reasonably be understood to reflect that the court has prejudged Disney’s retaliation theory here, and therefore create significant doubts about the court’s impartiality.

Disney argues that the comments have not met the criteria for removal.

But is there bias? What did the Judge actually say according to records?

It seems that Judge Walker has used the situation as examples during two court hearings, unrelated to the Disney “freedom of speech” lawsuit.

The examples given were these transcriptions of statements from Judge Walker:

June 21, 2022 – “And then Disney is going to lose its status because — arguably, because they made a statement that run afoul — ran afoul of state policy of the controlling party.

The filing argues the statement was made at an unrelated hearing on the same day that the SB 4C bill was signed into law.

This statement was listed as an example of Judge Walker using the Disney / DeSantis situation for an illustration of “retaliatory conduct.”

April 1, -2022 – “What’s in the record, for example is there anything in the record that says we are now going to take away Disney’s special status because they’re woke? Is there anything in the record that says that you put in the record that says we are going to slash the funding? We did, in fact, take away millions of dollars from school boards because they had the audacity to require their students to wear masks during a pandemic.

Politico noted in one of their articles that [Judge] “Walker has ruled against Florida Republicans multiple times.”

After reading the statements, it is understandable why one could argue potential bias. But is it enough for removal? That is the question Disney’s lawyers are now asking.

What are Disney’s attorney’s saying?

Disney’s lawyers want this judge to remain as it is being argued he sided with them. Of course, they are. Who wouldn’t? They are arguing that it isn’t biased as judges can only be disqualified if their comments indicate they can not be impartial.

Judges are not prohibited from referring accurately to widely-reported news events during oral arguments, nor must they disqualify themselves if cases related to those events happen to come before them months later. ..Disqualification is allowed only if the prior comments expose an incapacity on the judge’s part to consider the new case on its own merits,

Given that the judge did bring the issues around Disney and DeSantis up, in unrelated hearings, on two separate occasions, it does make one question bias. However, given the very public nature of the situation, especially in Florida, it would be hard to find a judge that didn’t already have some personal thoughts or biases on the situation.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!


Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, opinionated fan-powered news blog that covers Disney and Universal Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment and related Pop Culture from a consumer's point of view. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial news source and has no connection to The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we may cover.



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