MIAMI (AP) - A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Florida law that prevents cruise lines from requiring passengers to prove they’re vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the law appears unconstitutional and won’t likely hold up in court.
The “vaccine passport’’ ban signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to violate the First Amendment rights of Norwegian Cruise Lines, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams wrote.
In a nearly 60-page ruling issued late Sunday, the judge said Florida failed to “provide a valid evidentiary, factual, or legal predicate’’ for banning requirements that passengers prove they’ve been vaccinated. Norwegian has shown that suspending the requirement will jeopardize public health, potentially causing “super-spreader’’ events wherever passengers disembark, she wrote.
Florida separately sued the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seeking to block federal cruise ship vaccination requirements. The CDC lost on appeal, but then made its guidelines non-binding, and all cruise lines operating in Florida have agreed to keep following the CDC’s instructions on a voluntary basis, the judge wrote.
The CDC’s current guidelines, in effect until Nov. 1, say cruise lines can sail with confirmation that at least 95% of passengers and crew have been vaccinated, the judge noted.
Florida’s state attorney, Pete Patterson, previously said the law’s aim is to prevent invasions of privacy and discrimination against passengers who don’t get vaccinated.
The pandemic has cost Norwegian more than $6 billion to date by forcing the company to dock its entire 28-vessel fleet and send nearly 30,000 crew members home. Each canceled seven-day voyage would cost the company another $4 million, the judge noted.
The Norwegian Gem is set to depart from Miami this Sunday — the company’s first voyage from Florida since the pandemic halted its operations. More than 1,200 passengers have already booked tickets, promising to prove they’ve been vaccinated before boarding, the judge noted.
The company already has resumed its sailings from Seattle to Alaska.
“We want nothing more than to sail from Miami, the Cruise Capital of the World, and from the other fabulous Florida ports,’’ Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, said in a statement. “We welcome today’s ruling that allows us to sail with 100% fully vaccinated guests and crew which we believe is the safest and most prudent way to resume cruise operations amid this global pandemic,
Norwegian said that if it can’t maintain its vaccination policy in Florida, it will have to cancel all voyages leaving from the state or allow unvaccinated passengers on board, and both options would cause significant financial and reputational harm.
The entire business model of cruising depends on ships being able to cross federal, state, local and international jurisdictions in days or even hours, and each of them have different laws, regulations, and protocols, the judge noted. Belize, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands and Honduras are among the foreign ports that require proof of vaccination to enter without quarantines or testing.
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