After Gina Carano—with the help of Elon Musk—went to court to protest her firing from The Mandalorian, Disney has moved to throw out the suit.
According to Variety, Disney’s motion is based on “a constitutional right not to associate its artistic expression with Carano’s speech.” In 2021, The Mandalorian cast member parted ways with the Disney+ and Lucasfilm series after sharing a series of inflammatory posts on a variety of topics—the Holocaust, the election, LGBTQIA+ identification—based on misinformation and influence spread by the extreme right. According to the trade, the post that directly led to her firing was one in which she compared the persecution of “thousands” of Jewish people during World War II to contemporary conservatives: “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,” she wrote online. “How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Carano’s suit was launched under a California law prohibiting employers from retaliation in response to political activities, but Disney’s motion to dismiss “argued that there is a broad exception for companies whose business is to engage in speech,” including entertainment companies, according to Variety. Disney’s supporting materials included a law review article written by one of Carano’s own attorneys as well as two previous Supreme Court cases. “Disney thus was entitled to protect its creative speech in the Star Wars series from association with views Disney and many viewers (and potential viewers) considered offensive and contrary to Disney’s values,” Disney’s lawyers wrote, according to the trade. “Carano’s presence as a prominent actor on The Mandalorian’ interfered with Disney’s choice not to produce a show associated with her beliefs.”
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