Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has delivered what he said was a major victory for the cruise industry against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and what he said were obstructionist No Sail Orders that have flatlined Florida’s cruise industry for over a year.

Last Friday, Judge Steven Merryday concluded the CDC’s restrictions are likely unconstitutional and overstepping their legal authority, according to a statement from DeSantis.

Beginning July 18, the CDC’s orders will become mere “guidance,” and cruise ships will should be able to operate.

“The CDC has been wrong all along, and they knew it,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “The CDC and the Biden Administration concocted a plan to sink the cruise industry, hiding behind bureaucratic delay and lawsuits. Today, we are securing this victory for Florida families, for the cruise industry, and for every state that wants to preserve its rights in the face of unprecedented federal overreach.”

Included in the ruling, the Middle District Court of Florida found that:

• The CDC cannot discriminately keep children and families from cruising;
• Neither the CDC, nor any federal agency, can require a vaccine passport; and
• The CDC must create an actual framework for businesses to resume operations, rather than forcing them to conduct burdensome and bureaucratic tests without any standard by which to be measured.

In its ruling, the court says “Never has CDC (or a predecessor) detained a vessel for more than fifteen months; never has CDC implemented a widespread or industry-wide detention of a fleet of vessels in American waters; never has CDC condition pratique as extensively and burdensomely as the conditional sailing order; and never has CDC imposed restrictions that have summarily dismissed the effectiveness of state regulation and halted for an extended time an entire multi-billion dollar industry nationwide. In a word, never has CDC implemented measures as extensive, disabling and exclusive as those under review in this action.”

Judge Merryday also cites a previous ruling stating: “When an agency claims to discover in a long-extant statute an unheralded power to regulate ‘a significant portion of the American economy,’ we typically greet its announcement with a measure of skepticism.”