by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, a man who has become known nationally for fighting off all attempts to contain the pandemic in his state, is now pushing to resume Florida's lucrative cruise ship industry - and he is again fighting to stop the pandemic from setting the rules. DeSantis, who in the past has stood in the way of attempts to enact face mask mandates and school and business closures, and has encouraged measures to keep tourists flocking to his state - and to hell with social distancing - is now making a series of moves designed to get his state's important cruise ship industry cruising again - and cruising on his terms.
The Florida governor, a skilled politician who makes no secret of his presidential aspirations, has made a career over the past year of seeming to pretend that the COVID pandemic was little more than an inconvenience that was being hyped and politicized by Democrats, nevertheless made news a few weeks ago when it started becoming apparent that COVID vaccinations in Florida were happening along socio-economic lines, with wealthy white neighborhoods - and Republican donors - getting their's first.
One of DeSantis's more recent political battles has involved a struggle (and much noise) regarding COVID vaccination "passports" that could be used to restrict people who had not been vaccinated from entering certain businesses. The governor viewed that cause as so politically significant that he issued an executive order saying that Florida businesses could not bar people from entering their businesses just because they had not been inoculated against the disease.
Now DeSantis has moved his political sights onto the cruise ship industry. Cruise ships stopped sailing in March of 2020 due to the ravaging effects of the pandemic. Once a case appeared on a ship at sea, it tended to quickly spread among the passengers and crew, most of whom returned to many various states and countries once their cruise had ended. Cruise ships were little more than petri-dishes of bacteria flourishing on the high seas, the epitome of "super-spreaders."
The cruise ship industry has been under a "no sail" order with regard to U.S. ports since March of 2020. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has indicated that the situation may be good enough by this July to resume regular cruise activities at U.S. ports, and some cruise companies are stating that they feel it will be possible to resume normal U.S. schedules by June - and some are already sailing from-and-to foreign ports.
But none of that is good enough for Ron DeSantis. He wants the U.S. cruising to start now, and he wants those tourists spending their money in Florida!
This past Thursday DeSantis announced at a quickly-called press conference that he was going to Federal Court and suing the CDC to force the agency to lift the current restrictions on cruise ships in U.S. ports. Notably absent from the press conference were representatives of the cruise ship companies. They had apparently not been notified of the DeSantis stunt legal maneuver.
But now, with the "when" in limbo, DeSantis has moved on to control the "how." Some of the cruise ship companies, no doubt are still having nightmares about the diseased cruises of early 2020, are saying that they will require proof of vaccination before they will allow tourists on their ships - and Ron "ain't-a-gonna-have-no-vaccine-passports-on-my-watch" DeSantis is having none of that. He says that his executive order banning vaccine passports extends to cruise ships docking at U.S. ports as well as all other Florida businesses - never mind that some of the companies are foreign-owned and almost all cruise ship's fly the flags of other nations.
There are just so many days before the Iowa Caucuses of 2024, and Ron DeSantis has to make the most of each and every one of them!
1 comment:
The Constitution to Republicans is like the Bible. They haven't read either.
The two most pertinent clauses regarding Maritime Law grant the Congress exclusive jurisdiction over this area.
First is Article 3, § 2, which says in pertinent part: "The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction".
Second is Article 1, § 8, par. 18 (the last paragraph in the section) which is also known as the necessary and proper clause. It grants the Congress exclusive jurisdiction: "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."
In THE THOMAS BARLUM. THE JOHN J. BARLUM. DETROIT TRUST CO. v. BARLUM S. S. CO., 293 U.S. 21 (1934) Chief Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the Court. One paragraph appears to be on point with the changing circumstances that arise in Maritime Law. "The authority of the Congress to enact legislation of this nature was not limited by previous decisions as to the extent of the admiralty jurisdiction. We have had abundant reason to realize that our experience and new conditions give rise to new conceptions of maritime concerns. These may require that former criteria of jurisdiction be abandoned, as, for example, they were abandoned in discarding the doctrine that the admiralty jurisdiction was limited to tidewaters. The Genesee Chief, 12 How. 443, 13 L.Ed. 1058, overruling The Thomas Jefferson, 10 Wheat. 428, 6 L.Ed. 358."
While the Governor of Florida may bluster like a spoiled toddler insisting on his way, we live in a real world governed by real laws of which the Constitution is the most fundamental. If he persists in his delusion some member of the Fourth Estate should ask "By what authority". He has none it belongs to the Congress.
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