The Walt Disney Company filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Gina Carano against the company and argued “the First Amendment provides a complete defense against Carano’s claims.”
Gina Carano is Cara Dune in THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+.
Carano, with the help of Elon Musk and X, sued The Walt Disney Company at the beginning of February. The lawsuit “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 situation 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.”
Gina Carano is Cara Dune and Carl Weathers is Greef Karga in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
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.”
(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.
Now, The Walt Disney Company and Huckleberry Industries, the production company of The Mandalorian filed a motion to dismiss Carano’s suit. The motion states, “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 of Carano’s claims.”
The motion to dismiss also confirms that The Walt Disney Company fired Carano over a social media post that she shared to her Instagram Stories that was previously shared by warriorpriestgympodcast.
The post reads, “Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children.”
The post then shares a quote which reads, “Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Along with this text it included an image of a woman in undress being chased by youths with blunt objects.
Gina Carano Instagram
The motion states, “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.”
(Left to right) Gina Carano is Cara Dune, Pedro Pascal is the Mandalorian and Carl Weathers is Greef Karga in THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+
As for its claim that the First Amendment bars Carano’s claims, the motion states, “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.”
It continues, “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): 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.
Finally, the motion asserts, “What state law cannot do, however, is force entities that do create speech products to speak through writers or singers or actors whose own speech and public profile could, in the employer’s view, compromise the employer’s ability to express itself in its own chosen manner. Carano’s suit contravenes that rule.”
“It is an impermissible effort to invoke state power to override a private entity’s decisions about what to say in its own art and how to say it. The complaint should be dismissed,” Disney concludes.
(L-R): Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
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