By Dorothy Atkins

Law360 (June 3, 2021, 6:31 PM EDT ) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday slammed the federal government's request to file additional briefs in their legal fight playing out in the Sunshine State's federal court over pandemic-related cruise industry restrictions and said in a statement that requiring cruise-goers to be vaccinated discriminates against families with children.

In a response brief, Florida argued that allowing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to file additional briefs in their case will delay a ruling on the state's pending preliminary injunction bid, thereby harming Florida's economy.

"With each passing day that cruises — a singled-out industry — cannot operate, Florida suffers irreparable harm," the brief says. "As Florida's cruise lines and ports address the CDC's constantly changing labyrinth of requirements for safety plans and simulations, and businesses and employees suffer, time is of the essence."

After the brief was filed, DeSantis released a lengthy statement Thursday, criticizing the CDC's "ridiculous and unlawful" cruise industry regulations and "baseless requirement for face masks." The governor argued that the CDC has no legal authority to mandate COVID-19 "vaccine passports," because Floridians' medical privacy is protected under state law.

"The CDC has no excuse for ruining two summers of sailing and it is well past time to end the CDC's desperate attempt to prolong its power trip over America," the statement said. "Floridians are ready for a real trip on our waters."

The governor added that the CDC is taking the cruise industry "on a slow boat to nowhere" by shifting requirements every day, and its current requirement that 95% of cruise passengers be vaccinated is "ridiculous," because 30% of cruise passengers are children.

"As a result, the CDC is once again proving itself to be a bureaucratic virus against science-based governance and plain old commonsense," the statement said.

The fight over the additional briefing is the latest chapter in a hotly contested lawsuit that Florida filed against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and top government officials in April, challenging the CDC's series of "no-sailing" or "conditional-sailing" orders.

Florida asked the court to issue an injunction that would block the federal agencies from enforcing an Oct. 30 conditional sailing order that established a four-phase process for cruise lines to reopen.

The state argued that the latest guidance from the CDC issued April 2 is insufficient to allow the industry to take the necessary steps toward reopening and makes clear that the agency "does not intend to proceed with reopening the cruise industry in good faith." Florida also argued that the order is preventing 159,000 Floridians from getting back to work.

But in a brief filed in May, the federal government opposed the injunction, arguing that health care officials learned early in the pandemic that cruise ships are uniquely suited to spread COVID-19 due to their close quarters for passengers and crew for prolonged periods.

The government said that as a result of outbreaks on cruises, federal agencies have had to spend "vast" amounts of resources to evacuate, quarantine, isolate, house and treat passengers and therefore the cruise restrictions should remain in place while the "once-in-a-century pandemic," which has already killed more than half a million Americans and 3 million people around the world, threatens public health.

Since April, the states of Alaska and Texas have filed motions to intervene, throwing their weight behind Florida's argument that the federal cruising restrictions harm their local economies, and the case went to a mediator. But as of Thursday an agreement between the parties that would resolve the litigation had not been reached.

On Wednesday, the federal agencies asked the judge to let them file additional briefs in response to the states' arguments, but in a response brief, Florida argued that allowing more briefing would unnecessarily further delay a ruling on the preliminary injunction.

Florida also argued that the government can't rely on the recently enacted Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, which provides temporary standards for the operation of certain cruise ships in Alaska, because the statute is limited to Alaska's boundaries.

Florida additionally opposed the government's request to file briefs on CDC guideline changes, arguing that they're "constantly changing."

"If the parties must re-litigate the case every time the CDC moves the target, they will be filing supplemental briefs and declarations at least until the conditional sailing order expires in November, perhaps longer," the state said.

Representatives for the federal government did not respond immediately to requests for comment Thursday.

The state of Florida is represented by Ashley Moody, John Guard, James H. Percival, Jason H. Hilborn and Anita Patel of the Office of the Attorney General of Florida.

The U.S. government is represented by Brian D. Netter, Eric Beckenhauer and Amy E. Powell of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case is State of Florida v. Xavier Becerra et al., case number 8:21-cv-00839, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

--Additional reporting by Joyce Hanson. Editing by Kelly Duncan.

For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.