Florida Governor Ron DeSantis plans to appeal a ruling from a federal judge, who sided with Norwegian Cruise Line’s vaccine requirements.
DeSantis signed a law in May that banned vaccine passports, which stated that a company cannot require someone to show proof of vaccination in exchange for a service without a potential $5,000 fine per violation. However, the cruise line sued the state’s surgeon general over the law.
The Daily Wire reports that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams allegedly wrote that the cruise line had “demonstrated that public health will be jeopardized if it is required to suspend its vaccination requirement,” while lawyers for the state of Florida did not show any “public benefit from the continued enforcement” against the company’s proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
However, DeSantis’s office told The Daily Wire that they will appeal the ruling to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and that “[A] prohibition on vaccine passports does not even implicate, let alone violate anyone’s speech rights, and it furthers the substantial, local interest of preventing discrimination among customers based on private health information.”