The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is appealing a federal district judge’s conclusion that the agency’s rules on reopening the cruise industry exceeded the agency’s authority.
Attorneys for Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra filed the notice of an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 6. The notice came a day before District Judge Steven Merryday rejected a bid by the CDC to put a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the agency’s conditional order on hold.
The rejection was a victory for the state of Florida, which filed a lawsuit against the CDC’s restrictions on the cruise industry in April as the state sought to reopen its economy and relax coronavirus rules.
“(The) CDC in the present motion rehearses the arguments advanced unsuccessfully in opposition to Florida’s motion for a preliminary injunction,” Merryday said in his opinion. “CDC’s arguments remain unpersuasive.”
Last month, Merryday issued a 124-page opinion siding with Florida’s arguments that the agency had overstepped its statutory authority under the Administrative Procedure Act and was causing potential harm to the cruise industry and the state economy.
“The CDC’s no-sail orders are unlawful, and we are grateful Judge Merryday declined to grant the CDCs request for a stay of injunction,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Chrstina Pushaw, told the Florida Record in an email. “That would have only continued to ripple an industry that has already suffered so much at the hands of the CDC.”
The CDC had sought to implement a phased-in conditional sailing regime in order to guard against the further spread of COVID-19. The requirements for the industry included simulated trial voyages prior to regular passenger boarding, crew and passenger testing and other preventative measures.
In his July 7 order, however, Merryday cast doubt on the CDC’s “dire” warnings about the potential of the spread of COVID-19 aboard cruise vessels.
“... These dark allusions dismiss state and local health authorities, the industry’s self-regulation, and the thorough and costly preparations and accommodations by all concerned to avoid ‘transmission’ and to confine and control the ‘transmission,’ if one occurs,” he said.
Merryday emphasized that the injunction, which takes effect July 18, is more about the misuse of government authority than health precautions to fight the spread of the coronavirus.