The dismissal of Disney’s lawsuit against DeSantis

A federal judge ruled against Disney in its lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies, and activists on both sides of the aisle are still waiting to hear from the Florida Supreme Court about a proposed abortion amendment ballot initiative.

Judge rules against Disney

A federal judge has dismissed Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Secretary of the Department of Commerce and members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board.

The company had sued in April, claiming the state retaliated against it for publicly opposing the Parental Rights in Education law — called “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents.

The governor responded at the time by pushing the Florida Legislature to strip Disney of its longtime self-governing power under the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Disney claimed the move violated the company’s First Amendment rights because the governor was punishing it for disagreeing with him.

But the judge has now thrown that lawsuit out.

The case against DeSantis and the commerce secretary were dismissed because the judge ruled Disney didn’t have standing to sue them.

The judge dismissed the case against the CFTOB on the merits of the case, saying that Disney failed to state a claim.

“At the end of the day, under the law of this Circuit, ‘courts shouldn’t look to a law’s legislative history to find an illegitimate motivation for an otherwise constitutional statute’ …  Because that is what Disney seeks here, its claim fails as a matter of law,” the ruling said.

Florida Supreme Court weighs abortion amendment

The Florida Supreme Court is getting ready to hear arguments regarding placing an abortion amendment on the ballot. The organization, Floridians Protecting Freedom, received over 900,000 signatures qualifying that amendment for voters to decide the state’s future on the abortion issue.

Current Florida law allows abortion up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, but some say that’s not the only barrier women face when seeking an abortion.

A woman, who did not give her name out of fear of retribution, says since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the violence is real and it’s not uncommon for an Orlando Police officer to be out front of the clinic protecting the peace.

She is a volunteer with “Stand with Abortion Now” — also known as SWAN of Orlando. She’s a clinic escort, helping people needing to enter clinics.

“Our main purpose for being here is shielding patients from harassment from protesters,” she said.

Come November she’s hoping Florida voters can voice their opinion on the future of abortion in the state.

“I’m born and raised in Florida, seeing the shift of the political landscape and the reproductive justice landscape in Florida change in a post-Roe world has made this so important for me,” she said. “Polls have shown that both democratic and republican voters in the state of Florida alike have signed onto this ballot initiative and believe this issue should be in the hands of the voters.”

While her team at SWAN hope to continue defending what they say are reproductive rights in the state of Florida, they also know there are people who are always going to support anti-abortion policies.

Some protesters show up at the clinic in hopes of changing a patient’s mind.

“We understand the women are coming out here to make a hard decision,” said Alex Wright, who is against abortion rights. “But because we care and love for them, we want to see those babies be saved and see that mother not regret a decision she’s going to make.”

Wright comes weekly, spreading the gospel, as well as adoption resources for potential patients. Wright says he’s for the Florida Supreme Court to strike down the potential amendment, but would love to see abortion illegal nationwide.

“I hope that it gets struck down and hope they vote not to include it. I hope abortion never gets legalized fully. I hope it gets abolished,” said Wright.

On Feb. 7, the Florida Supreme Court will hear the first oral arguments potentially allowing the abortion amendment on the November ballot.

Lawmakers grill social media executives

The top officers of some of the world’s biggest social media companies defended their commitment to protecting young people on their platforms on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as senators pressed the tech giants for less talk and more action. 

“These companies must be reined in or the worst is yet to come,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee’s top Republican, said.

Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, featuring the CEOs of some of the best-known platforms, including Meta, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, opened with a video of people sharing personal stories about how they, or their children, faced exploitation on social media.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about whether he has personally compensated any of the victims and their families for what they have been through.

“I don’t think so,” Zuckerberg replied.

“There’s families of victims here,” Hawley said. “Would you like to apologize to them?”

Parents attending the hearing rose and held up pictures of their children. Zuckerberg stood as well, turning away from his microphone and the senators to address them directly.

“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered,” he said, adding that Meta continues to invest and work on “industry-wide efforts” to protect children.

The CEOs emphasized the existing tools they have in place on their platforms for users to report exploitation and protect children. The chief officer of Snap, Evan Spiegel, for instance, noted Snapchat does not have public friends lists and minors do not have public profile photos. 

TikTok’s Zi Chew noted there is a specific experience on its app designed for younger children while Zuckerberg pointed out controls that allow parents to limit the time children spend on Meta’s services. 

Ahead of the hearing, Snap announced it would support an act that would require platforms to report certain instances of drug trafficking. The CEO of X, formerly Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, said her site supports a bill that increases the ability of people who have experienced sexual exploitation to sue platforms. 

Republican and Democratic senators came together in a rare show of agreement throughout the hearing, though it’s not yet clear if this will be enough to pass legislation such as the Kids Online Safety Act, proposed in 2022 by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. 

Google’s YouTube was notably missing from the list of companies called to the Senate Wednesday even though more kids use YouTube than any other platform, according to the Pew Research Center. Pew found that 93% of U.S. teens use YouTube, with TikTok a distant second at 63%.