Saturday’s ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit came down to a 2-1 vote. Opinions had not been filed as of Sunday morning explaining the decision.
The motion filed by the CDC in the appeal said that the state of Florida ignored “what the protocols actually require: conventional communicable-disease control measures for cruise ships engaged in international travel, which fall easily within the CDC’s longstanding statutory and regulatory authority.” It also said the state “disregards the threat to public health that would arise if cruise ship operators were at liberty to ignore the CDC guidance or to act without oversight from public-health authorities.”
In response to Merryday’s ruling in June, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement that the “federal government does not, nor should it ever, have the authority to single out and lock down an entire industry indefinitely.”
