Keeping Cruises at Bay: Whether Port Cities Violate the Dormant Commerce Clause and Federal Maritime Law
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: These US Port Cities are Fighting to Restrict Cruise Ships Easier Said than A. Key West: Recurrent Opposition to FloridaIn 2019, before the pandemic, 910,000 cruise ship passengers visited Key West annually, a city of only 24,000 permanent residents.24 The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced the number of cruises that visited the small island.25 During the cruise ship traffic lull caused by the pandemic, Key West residents used this momentum to keep large vessels at bay. 26 Currently, Key West is fighting the State of Florida to impose limitations on the number of passengers that can exit cruise ships.27 The city first passed a voter-approved referendum to limit cruise ship traffic in November 2020.28 The referendum successfully prohibited cruise ships with 1,300 passengers or more from docking and limited the total for cruise ship disembarkation to 1,500 people per day.29 However, Key West's enthusiasm was met with opposition at the state level.30 Florida State Senator Jim Boyd first introduced a bill to overturn Key West's restrictions.31 The bill made it through the State Senate but then died in the Florida House.32 The proposed law was then added to a transportation bill, Senate Bill 1194.33 On July 1, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 1194, which prohibits restrictions on maritime commerce by cities, voiding Key West's referendum.34 Under express preemption, Florida preempted not just the recent restrictions but all of Key West's prior ordinances that it passed relating to cruise ship restrictions.35 In March 2022, Key West again attempted to impose limitations on cruise ships.36 Specifically, Key West commissioners unanimously passed resolution No. 22-073 to direct cruise ship activity to the privately owned Pier B dock and away from all public property.37 Resolution 22-073 also disallowed Pier B from bringing in cruise ships exceeding 1,005 feet in length and prohibited Pier B from using city property at Mallory Square without formal written permission.38 After this cutback, cruise ship traffic dropped by fifty percent.39 The decrease in cruise traffic hurt businesses on the small island.40 Edwin Swift III, president of Historic Tours of America, explained that his trolley tours business declined by forty percent.41 While Key West could not regulate cruise size or the number of passengers leaving ships, 42 it could force cruise ships to dock only at Pier B. This helped Key West reduce cruise traffic by disallowing ships to dock at Pier B and Mallory Square at the same time, a win for residents and environmental activists.43 However, not all residents received this news with such high enthusiasm.44 For some locals, this measure ill-served their businesses, which depended on cruise tourism to survive.45 In addition to this resolution, Key West also passed Ordinance No. 22-07, which established passenger disembarkation fees-essentially a tax on ship operators for visiting-that would pay for regular water quality testing, along with coral reef restoration projects.46 The operators of Pier B have to pay a one-dollar per passenger fee to the city.47 Key West reinjects the 36.Miles, supra note 12. 37. Id. 38.Shane Miller, Port Operator Asks to Expand Cruise Ship Capacity,
Source: bepress Legal Repository
Author: Jacobs, Julie
Language: English
Subfield: Accounting
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7010671405
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