Culture news This Star Wars actress files a lawsuit for unfair dismissal: Disney fights back against its constitution
Disney defends itself against actress Gina Carano by justifying her dismissal using the United States Constitution.
Gina Carano vs Disney: continuation and end?
The case between Gina Carano and Disney takes a new turn as the big-eared firm has just invoked the First Amendment to justify the dismissal of the actress from The Mandalorian.
In 2021, Disney decided to fire the actress and remove her from the filming of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian after the latter shared a series of tweets in which she notably compared the treatment of contemporary American conservatives to that of “thousands of Jews” during the Holocaust. The actress had already been criticized for her positions against restrictive measures during the health crisis, her questioning of the 2020 American elections and her refusal to support people’s rights transgender.
But for Disney, his commentary on the Holocaust was the “last straw.” The actress was therefore fired, but decided to defend herself by attacking the firm. She filed a complaint last February with the financial support of Elon Musk and now wants to win her case. For its part, Disney has just reacted.
Disney unsheathes the American Constitution
To win this case, Gina Carano decided to cite a California law which prohibits companies from firing their employees for their political positions. For its part, Disney defends itself by stating that this law does not concern companies that address the public, such as newspapers and entertainment companies. To finally prevent Gina Carano from filing a complaint, the big-eared firm decided to invoke the First Amendment of the United States Constitution according to Variety.
The First Amendment protects Disney’s decision to dissociate itself from certain speech, but not from other, different speech. The First Amendment requires respect for the speaker’s own decisions about what speech to associate with, even if others might view those decisions as “inherently inconsistent” (…) Carano therefore cannot file a discrimination claim by alleging that Disney gave different treatment to different statements from different actors.
Free to everyone’s interpretation, the First Amendment of the American Constitution is invoked here by Disney in relation to freedom of expression. For the firm, the court cannot follow up on Gina Carano’s complaint to the extent that it has the right to oppose the actress’ positions by asserting her political position herself. It remains to be seen whether this argument is admissible from the point of view of the court, which could otherwise interpret the First Amendment and find in favor of Gina Carano by virtue of this same freedom of expression.