In a victory for DeSantis, judge tosses CDC’s safety rules for cruise ships
After July 18, the rules will become non-binding recommendations for cruise companies. The CDC has until July 2 to propose a more limited set of cruise regulations to the court.
A federal judge threw out U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention safety rules for cruise companies operating in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, handing a victory to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday.
In a 124-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, of the Middle District of Florida, said the agency’s “conditional sail
order” — a framework of regulations dictating how cruises can restart in the U.S. — can remain in place for Florida cruises only until July 18, granting DeSantis’ request for a preliminary injunction while the full case moves forward.
After July 18, the rules will become non-binding recommendations for cruise companies as they are for other industries. The CDC has until July 2 to propose a more limited set of cruise regulations to the court.
The decision comes as Royal Caribbean International’s Freedom of the Seas ship is scheduled to perform the first test cruise under the CDC’s restart plan from PortMiami on Sunday. The first cruise ship carrying paying passengers, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge, is scheduled to depart from Port Everglades on June 26. No cruises have left U.S. ports with passengers since March 2020.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the hardworking Floridians whose livelihoods depend on the cruise industry,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in a statement. “The federal government does not, nor should it ever, have the authority to single out and lock down an entire industry indefinitely.”
In a statement to news media, Gov. Ron DeSantis said “the CDC has been wrong all along, and they knew it.” Calling the
ruling “a victory for Florida families,” he went on to characterize the agency’s regulations as an overreach.
The CDC published its conditional sail order in October, outlining four phases to get cruises sailing again. Companies first had to expand COVID-19 testing capabilities on their ships and report weekly test results for crew members.
The agency waited five months to issue instructions for the second phase, requiring companies to secure agreements with ports and health authorities in the U.S. cities where they planned to visit. Final phases give companies two options to restart cruises: Ships that have 98% of their crew and 95% of their passengers vaccinated can restart without test cruises; others must conduct a two-day test cruise to ensure other COVID-19 protocols are preventing outbreaks.
Frustrated with the delay, DeSantis sued the CDC on April 8, arguing that the cruise companies should be able to resume cruises immediately without CDC oversight. The state’s complaint said the agency is unfairly targeting the cruise industry by preventing it from operating since March 2020 and preventing Florida from collecting important tax revenue. The CDC argued it has broad authority to protect public health.
In Friday’s order, which applies only to cruises from Florida, Judge Merryday ruled that the CDC did not sufficiently justify the need for its cruise-safety regulations and that Florida has authority to sue the CDC because of “sufficient likelihood of continued economic harm” to the state caused, in part, by the regulations.
Regulations that require cruise companies to report cases of COVID-19 to the CDC are within the agency’s authority, Merrday’s ruling said. Other regulations — including a requirement that ships have COVID-19 testing labs, revamped ventilation systems and vaccination thresholds — are not.
Merryday called the CDC’s claim it has discretion to shut down a cruise because of COVID-19 transmission “breathtaking, unprecedented, and acutely and singularly authoritarian” and compared it to a hypothetical shutdown of sexual intercourse nationwide to prevent the spread of AIDS.
The CDC has until July 2 to present Merryday with “a narrower injunction both permitting cruise ships to sail timely and remaining within CDC’s authority as interpreted in this order.”
CDC spokesperson Caitlin Shockey said the agency does not comment on litigation.
ROCKY RESTART
The ruling is another jarring juncture in the already twisting cruise restart.
Many cruise companies have implemented vaccine
requirements following the CDC’s recommendation that all cruise passengers be vaccinated. But some had to add caveats for Florida cruises this month when DeSantis insisted there would be no exception to a recently passed state law that bars businesses from requiring patrons to provide proof of vaccination.
Royal Caribbean International will require passengers 16 years old and older be vaccinated on its ships leaving from all U.S. states, except for Florida, where the company will recommend that passengers be vaccinated. Its sister company, Celebrity Cruises, will require cruisers 16 years old and older in Florida to be vaccinated;
those who don’t volunteer proof will be hit with extra restrictions and expenses.
Last week, two passengers tested positive five days into an eight-day cruise on the Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Millennium ship in the Caribbean, even though all adult passengers and crew showed proof of vaccination. This week, eight crew members tested positive on Royal Caribbean International’s Odyssey of the Seas ship off Florida’s coast, less than two weeks since crew members on board were vaccinated. In response, the company pushed back the ship’s tentative restart date by nearly a month.
Paired with the already-confusing landscape of vaccine requirements, Friday’s ruling has the potential to turn cruisers away, said Larry Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization’s center on global health law. Gostin previously said DeSantis’ lawsuit against the CDC had little to no viability because although the agency’s powers are not limitless, they are “at their zenith” when it comes to interstate and international commerce.
“I profoundly disagree with the judge’s decision,” he said. “If the CDC doesn’t have the opportunity to regulate cruise lines, it’s going to be very bad for the cruise-line industry. No one wants to go on a cruise unless they have high confidence the cruise is safe.”
The CDC has to decide whether to appeal Merryday’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit or try to settle the case, said Bob Jarvis, a constitutional-law professor at Nova Southeastern University. Jarvis previously called the lawsuit a “political stunt.”
Public-health experts warn that cruise ships are different from other settings because they bring people together from all over the world for days at a time in crowded spaces with finite health resources.
“The evidence is overwhelming that cruise ships are among the highest-risk environments, if not the most risky environment for COVID-19,” said Gostin. “CDC is not singling out cruise ships for special treatment, it’s trying to regulate a known hazard and making it safer.”
Spokespeople for the major cruise lines said they were reviewing the order or did not respond to requests for comments.