Tourism district board asks court to throw out Disney's state counter-lawsuit

There has actually been quite a bit of action on these cases. This news story refers to the state case, which has been super busy. But also, Disney quietly filed an amended complaint for the US district case in early September, and the district triumphantly declared at the time that Disney dropped most of the allegations. They didn't say which ones, so I found the original and compared. Disney dropped the contracts clause, takings clause, due process clause, and the second First Amendment count. That one was about the chilling effect of Disney's free speech. The count that they kept is the one that references Citizens United v. FEC. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not sure why they dropped the other counts, but it seems to me like the one they kept was the easiest to prove anyway.

On 9/28, the district filed its objections to what I assume are all of Disney's documentation requests. The background seems to object to the semantics of the request, which reads like Bill Clinton disputing the definition of "is." Most of the specific objections seem to be waiting for some decision on whether or not there's summary judgment, which I assume at this point isn't going to happen. Other objections are made over requests for any analysis done over Disney's development agreement, saying that it's just "harassment" and Disney is asking for them to do the work of making their case. I take that to read there is no analysis, and if that's true, it counters some of the district's claim that its mission and purpose is useful.

The day before that, Disney issued subpoenas to depose like a dozen different special districts of various flavors from around the state. Obviously going after the "why us?" angle.

The week before last, they subpoenaed John Classe, the district's new administrator, for deposition.