TAMPA, Fla. — In a blockbuster ruling last week, federal judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down a requirement that people wear masks on public transportation including planes to limit the spread of COVID-19.
But that wasn’t the first time decisions in the fierce debate over pandemic safety regulations have come out Tampa’s federal courthouse.
In three separate cases, veteran U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday — who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and has been on the bench since 1992 — weighed in on cruise ship regulations and vaccine mandates, ruling each time against the COVID-19 requirements.
Cruise ships
In June, Merryday issued a 124-page decision throwing out the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s safety rules for cruise ships as they readied to begin carrying passengers from Florida again.
In granting a preliminary injunction in Florida’s legal challenge to the cruise rules, the judge said the CDC hadn’t adequately justified the need for the regulations on how cruises could restart. He also said Florida faced “a sufficient likelihood of continued economic harm.”
The CDC’s claim that it had authority to impose measures such as shutting down ships — sidelined in March 2020 after onboard COVID-19 outbreaks — was “a breathtaking, unprecedented, and acutely and singularly authoritarian claim,” the judge wrote. He also wondered in his order if the CDC could or should have shut down sexual intercourse in the United States to prevent the spread of AIDS, syphilis or herpes.
The CDC’s “conditional sail order” was a phased plan for restarting cruises that included expanded COVID-19 testing capabilities on board and having nearly all passengers and crew vaccinated in order to sail without “test” cruises first.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office declared Merryday’s ruling “a major victory.”
Vaccines for federal contractors
In December, Merryday issued a preliminary injunction blocking President Joe Biden’s vaccine requirement for federal contractors.
The judge said Florida’s lawsuit fighting that vaccine regulation showed “a substantial likelihood” that there was no authority to make such a requirement.
Merryday said the extent of any absenteeism by contractors and subcontractors, any procurement delay or any cost increases attributable to COVID-19 were “unexplained.”
“In other words, the extent of any procurement problem, past or future, attributable to COVID-19 is undemonstrated and is merely a hastily manufactured but unproven hypothesis about recent history and a contrived speculation about the future,” the judge wrote.
Similar rulings have been issued by judges in other states.
Vaccines for the military
In February, a Navy commander and a Marine lieutenant colonel testified before Merryday about their religious reasons for resisting the military’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Each had been denied a religious exemption and faced possible discharge if they didn’t comply.
Both the military members — who were allowed to testify anonymously — said they were Christians and concerned that vaccines would put impurities in their bodies. “For me it would be a sin,” the lieutenant colonel said.
Both also expressed concern about fetal cell lines, used in the research and development of various vaccines and many common medicines.
Said Amy Powell, an attorney for the Department of Justice: “We would rather people not be in the military than place other service members at risk.”
Merryday issued an injunction allowing the military members to continue serving without punishment pending a final judgement in the case.
He said the Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires the military to give an exemption to a service member who has a sincere religious objection to the vaccine — unless there is a compelling governmental interest and no less-restrictive alternatives are available.
The Navy and Marine Corps “failed manifestly” to meet that requirement, the judge said.
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