Florida Gov. DeSantis is trying to reverse the CDC’s cruise restrictions in the state, saying it’s hurting Florida’s economy, as Delta variant rages across the US

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to take legal action to lift CDC restrictions on the state’s cruise industry.
• DeSantis said Monday he would take the legal fight to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
• The legal fight comes as the US faces the spread of the Delta variant amid a growing vaccine divide in the country.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged Monday to reverse a court ruling that supports the CDC’s conditional sailing order on cruise lines as the Delta variant surges across the US – even taking the case to the Supreme Court, if necessary, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set health guidelines and restrictions for cruise lines to follow in order to set sail, which Florida officials claimed were too restrictive and could prevent most cruises from ever hitting the water.

In June, US District Judge Steven Merryday issued a preliminary injunction, which would have overturned the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention starting July 18, but the agency requested to delay the decision.

Late Saturday night, an appellate court panel granted the CDC’s appeal to delay the injunction in a 2-1 decision, which DeSantis promised to overturn via legal action.

“I think that most courts at this point have had their limit with the CDC issuing these dictates without a firm statutory basis,” the Florida governor said at a press conference Monday. “So I’m confident that we’d win on the merits at the full 11th Circuit.”

“Honestly, I’m confident we’d win at the US Supreme Court,” he added.

The CDC order also led to the state filing a lawsuit in April in an attempt to strip the authority of the federal health agency on the state’s cruise industry and lift the restrictions.

“One of the reasons why we did it was not just it’s an important industry for our state,” he said. “We’re committed to that, but it raises a bigger question: Can you just have one agency in the government, without Congress ever passing a law, just basically shutting down an industry?”

“Maybe you don’t care about the cruise industry,” DeSantis continued. “Next time it might be your industry. Next time, it may affect people that you know, or people that depend on this for their livelihood. So I think it raises a lot of important implications.”

DeSantis’ legal fight comes as the US faces the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus amid a growing vaccine divide in the country. Since cruises set sail again last month amid reopening efforts, multiple cruises have reported cases of COVID-19 aboard the boat.

Two passengers tested positive for COVID-19 on a “fully-vaccinated” Royal Caribbean cruise, and two passengers aboard the MSC Seaside also tested positive for COVID-19. Three people aboard an Alaska cruise line were infected with COVID-19.