A Disney lawyer asked a judge in California to throw out Gina Carano’s lawsuit on Tuesday. They say her claims shouldn’t be allowed because of the First Amendment.
Disney makes things like movies and shows, and they say they shouldn’t be forced to use actors whose actions outside of work go against what Disney believes in. They’re saying it’s not right for the government to tell a private company what to say or how to say it.
The lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, argues that Disney has the right to choose who they want to work with and what messages they want to share. He says the First Amendment protects Disney from Carano’s claims.
Carano sued Disney in February, saying they broke California labor laws by firing her.
She says Disney didn’t include her character, Cara Dune, in the next season of “The Mandalorian” because of things she said publicly. Disney says they have the right to decide who to work with, just like a newspaper can decide who writes for them.
Before she was fired, Carano made comments about different topics like COVID-19 and elections. Disney says these comments took attention away from their work.
They say Carano’s post about the Holocaust was the last straw. She reposted something on Instagram that talked about how the Holocaust happened because people turned against their Jewish neighbors. This upset many people, and Disney says they’d had enough of her controversial statements.