Florida Governor Says He Will Take CDC Cruise Order Fight to Supreme Court

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced he would fight a court order issued over the weekend supporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) conditional sailing order.

According to Newsweek, an appellate court panel granted the CDC’s appeal to delay an injunction that would have overturned the agency’s authority starting July 18 in a 2-1 decision late Saturday night, which DeSantis promised to overturn via legal action.

Florida officials claimed the CDC’s health guidelines and restrictions for cruise lines to set sail again were “too restrictive and could prevent most cruises from ever hitting the water,” according to DeSantis.

“I think that most courts at this point have had their limit with the CDC issuing these dictates without a firm statutory basis,” DeSantis said at a press conference Monday. “So, I’m confident that we’d win on the merits at the full 11th Circuit. Honestly, I’m confident we’d win at the US Supreme Court.”

Florida filed a lawsuit in April against the United States government over the “unlawful” shutdown of the cruise industry, which was unsuccessfully sent to a mediator in May by a federal judge in Tampa.

The cruise industry is coming back to service with a force, as three more Carnival Cruise Line ships are scheduled to resume service in September, with an additional four vessels ready to sail again in October.

“Maybe you don’t care about the cruise industry,” DeSantis said about the latest court order. “Next time it might be your industry. Next time, it may affect people that you know, or people that depend on this for their livelihood. So, I think it raises a lot of important implications.”