Gina Carano Fights Back Against Disney’s Attempt To Dismiss Her Lawsuit

Gina Carano, who was fired from “Star Wars” in 2021 over social media posts, has filed a lawsuit against Disney for terminating her. Disney claims she was fired over social media posts “trivializing” the Holocaust, but her co-star Pedro Pascal had behaved similarly and was not fired. Now, Carano’s attorneys are firing back at Disney’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that they are protected from her suit by the First Amendment.

In a new filing, Carano’s attorneys fight against Disney’s dismissal, arguing that the First Amendment does not give employers the right to control their employees’ speech. They also argue that Disney admitted to “discrimination” based on her political beliefs and did not hold male co-stars to the same standard, namely Mark Hamill and Pedro Pascal.

“After admitting that they discriminated against Carano for her
personal political beliefs and subjected her to disparate treatment from
her similarly situated male co-stars, The Walt Disney Company,
Lucasfilm LTD, and Huckleberry Industries (collectively, “Defendants”)
assert that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives them
absolute immunity.

Defendants are incorrect.

Neither the First Amendment itself nor the few cases applying the First Amendment in the
context of casting give employers the right to control or punish the
personal speech of employees. None of Carano’s comments reference
Defendants, Star Wars, or The Mandalorian, or had anything to do with
Defendants. Carano’s claims do not seek to impose any message on
Defendants or to change Defendants’ speech in any fashion. Rather,
Carano seeks relief for Defendants’ violation of laws of general
applicability that do not, as applied here, inhibit or affect Defendants’
speech. Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss [Doc. 33] should be denied.”

The filing takes aim at Disney’s “mischaracterization” of Carano and her statements saying they did not assign a political party and they were similar statements made by the Auschwitz Museum.

“As to the specifics of Carano’s Complaint, and contrary to
Defendants’ assertion, Carano did not disparage anyone, and she
certainly did not “publicly trivialize the Holocaust,” let alone
“grotesquely” do so… Indeed, the Auschwitz Museum made the
same point as the one contained in Carano’s February 10, 2021 post
… Defendants claim Carano’s February 10, 2021 post was
“comparing criticism of political conservative viewpoints to the Holocaust
in Nazi Germany” … but the post—which they quote—does not
refer to “conservative viewpoints” at all…”

They further address the harassment she faced over not adding pronouns to her bio on X, which is not required.

I have pointed out several times that other people at Lucasfilm did not have pronouns in their bios and were not required to do so.

“Likewise, Carano did not “mock people who identify their
pronouns to show support for transgender rights”… And of note, several of the accounts that hounded Carano for not putting pronouns in her X header did not have pronouns in their own…Yet, as set out in the Complaint, Defendants harassed Carano over pronoun issues, enforcing their own view of orthodox speech outside the workplace.”

Here are some of the accounts that harassed the actress for months after she refused to post her pronouns in her bio.

Later in the rebuttal, her attorneys mention how social media posts made by Mark Hamill and Pedro Pascal, who seemingly lean left, are allowed to be posted without backlash or termination.

While they have strong political leanings and posts about their beliefs, some of which have seemed politically motivated against those on the right, their comments were not punished, and Disney isn’t claiming they harmed their show. It seems to be a double standard.

“With no evidence that Defendants would “be forced to have [their]
creative speech diluted by viewers thinking about [Carano’s] speech”
… the First Amendment provides no sanctuary to
Defendants—at least under the facts alleged in the Complaint. As
explained there, Defendants certainly were not concerned about viewers
associating Pascal’s or Hamill’s speech with Defendants’ creative speech… And Defendants’ attempt in their motion to distinguish Pascal’s and Hamill’s comments from Carano’s..does not help them here. Rather, it simply shows the duplicity of Defendants’ actions and confirms their violation of California law.”

Disney’s dismissal motion will be heard on June 12 before Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett. The case will then be decided whether to be dismissed or moved forward.

Frankly, if it gets dismissed, Disney better start firing other actors for their comments about anything that could remotely be political or denigrating to groups of people. I would strongly recommend they put up clear mandates and guidelines and enforce them evenly across the board.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!

Source: Deadline.