In court documents obtained by That Park Place, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett has denied the request by the Walt Disney Company to dismiss Gina Carano’s lawsuit. with Gina Carano and her lawyers against The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm’s attempt to dismiss her case.
Gina Carano speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Deadpool”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
According to Judge Garnett “[Disney, Lucasfilm, and Huckleberry] have failed to set forth an “impenetrable defense” under the First Amendment… the Court DENIES Defendants’ Motion
Carano filed her lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company back in February with suit detailing it is “a civil action arising from Defendants wrongful termination of Carano’s employment in retaliation for Carano’s lawful exercise of her right to speak and express her views. Specifically, Defendants—under the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek—fired Carano because of her posts (‘the Posts’) on various social media platforms including X (formerly known as Twitter). Carano composed and published the Posts while she was off-duty and away from the workplace.”
The suit also alleged, “Defendants terminated Carano’s employment and took other retaliatory actions to limit and deny her future employment opportunities, including but not limited to making maliciously false statements about Carano with the intention of damaging her reputation and, thus, her ability to find and retain work.”
It also stated, “Defendants treated Carano differently than her similarly situated male co-workers, who likewise expressed their personal political views on social media but, upon information and belief, were not counseled or disciplined, let alone terminated.”
Cara Dune (Gina Carano) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN.
The lawsuit specifically accused The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm of “wrongful discharge,” “wrongful discharge and refusal to hire,” and “sex discrimination.”
Carano is asking for “preliminary and permanent injunctive relief requiring Defendants to reinstate Carano to her prior position with no loss of pay or benefits; A judgement declaring that Defendants’ termination of Carano’s employment was unlawful and in violation of California law; Compensatory damages, including but not limited to loss of pay from the date of termination to the date of reinstatement, in an amount to be determined at trial, but exceeding $75,000; Compensatory damages for loss of future employment, including but not limited to the promised role in Rangers of the New Republic, in an amount to be determined at trial; Emotional distress damages, in an amount to be determined at trial; Punitive damages, in an amount to be determined at trial; Reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs; and Such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.”
Gina Carano via PBD Podcast
The Walt Disney Company filed a Motion to Dismiss in April arguing that “Disney makes this motion on the grounds that Disney has a constitutional right not to associate its artistic expression with Carano’s speech, such that the First Amendment provides a complete defense to Carano’s claims.
Later in their motion the company’s lawyers argued, “Carano’s claims are all barred by the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court held in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557 (1995), The First Amendment embodies a core principle of ‘speaker’s autonomy’ that bars the state from dictating to expressive enterprises what to say, how to say it, and whom to say it through.”
Disney continued, “As the Court further held in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000), that principle means that a state cannot force an employer engaged in speech to speak through an employee whose own views or public profile could compromise the employer’s own message, even if the employee does not express her views on the job.”
(L_R): Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
READ: First Amendment Legal Expert Ron Coleman Reacts To Disney’s Motion To Dismiss Gina Carano’s Lawsuit
Disney’s Motion added, “The coup de grace came in February 2021, when Carano admittedly reposted on Instagram a post comparing criticism of politically conservative viewpoints to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.”
It adds, “Carano’s decision to publicly trivialize the Holocaust by comparing criticism of political conservatives to the annihilation of millions of Jewish people—notably, not ‘thousands’—was the final straw for Disney. As Carano alleges, Lucasfilm that same day denounced her statements and observed that it had ‘no plans’ to employ her in the future.”
The Motion later stated, “Disney had enough. The same day Carano grotesquely trivialized the Holocaust as comparable to sharp political disagreements, Lucasfilm announced that ‘Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.’”
(L-R): The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and The Child in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
On June 12th, Carano, her lawyers, and lawyers representing The Walt Disney Company appeared before U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett and according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Judge Garnett was unconvinced by Disney’s arguments, “I’m not convinced there are no disputed facts.”
The outlet also reported that Judge Garnett appeared to favor an argument from Carano’s lawyer Gene Schaerr. Schaerr argued, “Disney’s First Amendment defense cannot allow it to shortcircuit the normal litigation process.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Judge Garnett reacted to this argument stating, “I don’t necessarily disagree with you.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Winston Cho even noted, “A federal judge has signaled that Gina Carano‘s lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm over her termination from The Mandalorian will be allowed to proceed as the court considers whether the First Amendment allows private companies to sever ties with employees who publicly clash with their values.
(L-R): Cara Dune (Gina Carano), The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), Mythrol (Horatio Sanz) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Carano shared her thoughts after leaving the court room to X, “In the beautiful halls of the federal court in Los Angeles I was quite amazed at its splendor. I half expected to see Tom Cruise come sailing down the center like in the Mission Impossible movies. Having just left court, the judge said she would issue a ruling in the near future.”
She added, “This case is important beyond just me. Disney should not have carte blanch authority to fire any actor just because Disney disagrees with something they say outside of work. No actor would be free to have a voice if that were true. I look forward to this case moving forward and proving Disney’s blatant discriminatory actions.Again thank you for the support always.”
In the beautiful halls of the federal court in Los Angeles I was quite amazed at its splendor. I half expected to see Tom Cruise come sailing down the center like in the Mission Impossible movies.
Having just left court, the judge said she would issue a ruling in the near…
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) June 12, 2024
First Amendment lawyer Ron Coleman shared his analysis of the report in an appearance on financial analyst Valliant Renegade’s YouTube channel.
He stated, “The position Disney is taking right now and what is probably offensive to this judge as it should be is: Do you own her? By virtue of having a job in one of your comic book movies, is this woman now your property such that she can’t express an opinion on any matter that you disagree with for as long as she’s employed by you. That’s a very different proposition.”
He later added, “She’s probably going to say there probably should be some discovery to find out is that really why you fired. Do you really believe-? Was there really some data that you relied on in making this significant, not earth shattering, but significant creative and business decision to fire her, which said that her continued employment would turn off audiences? Or are you rationalizing that because what the emails and the texts and the Slack discussions will show is that you said, ‘This right wing b***h has got to go.'”
Coleman then asserted that “[Judge Garnett] wants to hear more. I don’t see how you come out of that hearing as [Disney’s lawyer] with a great deal of optimism. The Judge wants to hear more and she wants to see some Discovery.”
“It’s really, really important to understand that if she denies the Motion to Dismiss it’s not a ruling of the merits. It may very well be that Disney acted within its right in firing her. They may very well be based on a sober discussion of what they perceived their audience to be or even a drunken and irrational discussion, but that it was really based on audience expectation and sensibility. But as I said, if they find that smoking gun that suggest that it was punishment for her not being on board with the woke agenda that is so baked into Disney as an institution may very well make a big difference.”
Gina Carano is Cara Dune and Carl Weathers is Greef Karga in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of the Judge’s comments?
