Judge slaps down Disney efforts to toss out Gina Carano's Mandalorian lawsuit

A California judge has just ruled against Disney in its ongoing, multi-year efforts to no longer have anything to do with former Mandalorian actor Gina Carano—in this case, their specific efforts to no longer get sued by her for a lot of money, and also, like, to get a court order to grant her what we’re sure would be a very natural, legally mandated return to the Star Wars show. (And the Rangers spin-off she was supposed to star in, several social media catastrophes ago.) Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett shot down Disney’s efforts to get Carano’s suit against them dismissed earlier today, arguing that the company hadn’t successfully shown that its basic stance on the matter held muster.

Which is, roughly, to argue that, since Disney creates art as part of an expression of certain ideas and value, using an actor whose own publicly stated beliefs run counter to those values violates the company’s First Amendment rights of expression. (I.e., that having Carano—who got fired shortly after making a social media post that appeared to mock the concept of preferred pronouns, and right after sharing an Instagram post that appeared to compare treatment of American conservatives to Nazi treatment of Jews during the Holocaust—performing the progressive words and values of The Mandalorian would inherently wreck the expression of that message.) Garnett didn’t buy it, writing that Disney had failed to “substantiate a claim that they employ public-facing actors for the purpose of promoting the ‘values of respect,’ ‘decency,’ ‘integrity,’ or ‘inclusion.'” She also argued that, unlike organizations like the Boy Scouts, which are ” members-only, nonprofit organizations” that can legally kick members out for disagreeing with their organizational beliefs, Disney’s status as a ” for-profit corporation who, as relevant to this lawsuit, employ actors such as Plaintiff, as well as administrative staff, to create television series and films” renders it no such protections.

(Which is actually kind of fascinating, philosophically, in a world where online conversations have forced companies to take public stances on many of the biggest topics of the day. But Garnett clearly didn’t think it held water. Also, did you know you can just look up court documents and read them for fun? We’re cool people, is all we’re trying to say.)

Anyway, this means Carano’s trial, which is being bankrolled at least in part by Elon Musk, in his ongoing efforts to give us just this awful headache in the back of our brains, will continue to move forward. The motion to dismiss was filed back in April; it’s not clear yet when, exactly, the case will go to trial.

[via Deadline]