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Categories: “Admiralty”

  • Texas and Alaska Join Florida Lawsuit Against the CDC
  • May 24th, 2021 — by Betsy Lee Montague — Category: Admiralty COVID-19

  • In early April 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seeking to enjoin the federal government from enforcing the CDC’s operating restrictions on cruise ships, specifically for the purpose of accelerating the cruise industry’s domestic reopening.


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  • Open for Business: Florida Legislature Seeks to Reverse Recent Key West Cruise Ship Ban
  • March 31st, 2021 — by Blake Tims — Category: Admiralty

  • Nearly 400 cruise ships and one million passengers visited Key West, Florida in 2018-2019. While the ships and passengers provide economic benefits to the city, residents and local government officials worry about their environmental impacts. On November 3, 2020, residents of Key West voted on three initiatives that would essentially ban large cruise ships from entering ports in Key West.


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  • U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Whether Safe-Berth Clause Establishes Warranty of Safety
  • March 12th, 2021 — by Blake Tims — Category: Admiralty

  • In 2004, a 748-foot oil tanker known as the M/T Athos I collided with a nine-ton anchor that had been left on the bed of the Delaware River, causing approximately 264,000 gallons of heavy crude oil to spill into the river. The owner of the vessel, Frescati Shipping (Frescati), and the federal government sought reimbursement of cleanup costs from the sub-charterer, Citgo Asphalt Refining Company and Others (CARCO).


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  • New EPA Ballast Water Rule: Where We Are and How We Got Here
  • January 13th, 2021 — by Sierre Anton — Category: Admiralty Clean Water Act

  • In October of 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule establishing standards for incidental discharges from vessels in waters of the United States. This is the first proposed rule to come out of the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA), which was signed into law by President Trump in December 2018.


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  • CDC Lifts No-Sail Order for Cruise Ships
  • November 2nd, 2020 (updated on Nov. 4th, 2020) — by Zachary Klein — Category: Admiralty COVID-19

  • On March 14, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a No Sail Order (NSO) for cruise ships in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than seven months later, the agency has announced that it will allow the ban to expire at the end of October. The CDC has replaced the NSO with a framework that takes a phased approach to resuming passenger cruise ship operations in US waters.


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  • Stand Up Paddleboard Not a Traditional Maritime Activity
  • February 28th, 2020 — by Terra Bowling — Category: Admiralty

  • After a man drowned in the Santa Barbara Harbor while using a rented stand-up paddleboard (SUP), his survivors filed a wrongful death and survival action against the company and its owner in California state court. The rental company then filed an admiralty action in federal court seeking to limit its liability to the value of the SUP. The district court dismissed the admiralty action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed.


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