DeSantis’ culture wars grabbed headlines — and legal challenges that cost $17 million

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political strategy has won national attention for his ability to shrewdly select culture war issues and use a compliant Florida Legislature to advance them. But while the agenda has drawn more than 15 lawsuits, it has so far yielded few legal victories, and cost Florida taxpayers nearly $17 million in legal fees to date. In case after case, courts have scaled back, thrown out, or left in legal limbo rules and laws that impose restrictions on social media giants, limit voting, curb gender-related health care, influence speech in the workplace, college campuses and classrooms and create new crimes for peaceful protests. DeSantis has had a few successes. Courts sided with the administration’s challenge to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s safety rules for cruise companies. An appeals court reinstated the state’s ban on mask mandates in school districts during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the same appellate court refused to put on hold the governor’s congressional redistricting map that gave Republicans four additional seats in the U.S. House. But of the 15 culture war policies under fire from critics who say they violate constitutional rights, only the bans on vaccine passports and mask mandates are in the clear.

The cost to taxpayers for these legal battles has been at least $16.7 million, according to transaction disclosures posted on the state’s contract web site and reviewed by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times. But DeSantis’ critics say the governor’s win-loss record is irrelevant to him. They see his strategy as one intended to garner headlines and use the state treasury to pursue performative policies intended to appeal to voters in the Republican base as he positions himself to run for president in 2024. “Most people who go to court actually want to win,’’ said Bob Jarvis, a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University. “That is not DeSantis’ objective. He is all about winning the news cycle.” To DeSantis’ supporters, however, the governor’s penchant for engaging in issues destined for litigation is a winning formula that demonstrates a willingness to challenge institutions at a time when the public is angry and distrusting of government and corporations. They point to his 19-point win over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist in his re-election bid, new national polls that show him beating former President Donald Trump in a 2024 GOP primary, and moves by other Republican-led states to adopt similar policies as evidence he has effectively tapped into a cultural zeitgeist in polarized times. “We fight the woke in the Legislature,” DeSantis said in his election night victory speech. “We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”