The conservative state of Florida finally had enough with liberal lockdown policies and slapped the federal government with a lawsuit. The travel industry has been crippled by Covid-19 long enough so the state is taking the Palace to court, demanding cruise ships “be allowed to start sailing immediately.”
Lawsuit over no-sail order
Conservative Governor Ron DeSantis announced the lawsuit filed against the federal government on Thursday, proclaiming the Imperial no-sail order “outdated.” Not only that, it “hurts the state.”
The cruise industry “generates billions for the economy” and also puts tens of thousands to work. “We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data.”
The governor held a news conference at the Port of Miami to notify the public about the lawsuit. Last week, Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines “on how to respond in the event of COVID-19 cases.”
Without any science to back it up, they have not lifted their no-sail order. The report, lawyers insist, “doesn’t take into consideration another CDC statement made that fully vaccinated people can now travel at low risk to themselves.”
The report, according to the lawsuit, also says that “agreements be made between cruise companies and all U.S. ports and local health authorities where ships have to dock.”
The whole industry has been shut down tight since last March. That’s when “several coronavirus outbreaks were tied to ships worldwide, prompting ports to reject docking plans and leaving some passengers and crew members to navigate for an extended time.”
World’s busiest ports
Florida is the hub for America’s cruise industry. The state hosts “three of the world’s busiest ports.” Besides Miami, there are Port Canaveral near Kennedy Space Center, and Port Everglades near Fort Lauderdale.
As noted in the lawsuit, the “industry generates billions for the state’s economy as millions of people typically cruise from one of Florida’s ports each year.”
It isn’t fair, DeSantis says, because “cruising has resumed in much of the world.” They have to resort to a lawsuit because Americans are flying “to other ports in the nearby Bahamas.” Besides that, there haven’t been any new outbreaks tied to the cruise ships.
“People are going to cruise one way or another. The question is are we going to do it out of Florida, which is the number one place to do it in the world, or are they going to be doing it out of the Bahamas or other locations?”
Official Palace spokesunit Jen Psaki didn’t have a single thing to say in response to the lawsuit but refused to throw mud at the CDC over using “flawed data to ban sailing.” As she noted, “I will just reiterate that the CDC guidance is based on data and health and medical guidelines, hence that’s why they put it out and why they are regularly updated.”
Which says absolutely nothing. Maritime Lawyers aren’t confident about the suit’s chances. “The reason why this would be a futile is CDC officials have wide discretion in how they do their federally mandated job,” Michael Winkleman advises. “From a big-picture perspective, I don’t think there is any reason why cruises cannot sail safely.”
