Four Cruise Lines Accused Of 'Prohibited Tourism' In Cuba
By CBSMiami.com TeamMarch 22, 2022 at 5:30 pm
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – In a major blow to several cruise companies, with ties to South Florida, that traveled to Cuba, a Miami federal judge has ruled that they took part in “prohibited tourism” by carrying passengers to the island nation and profited from the use of the port facilities in Havana.
According to court documents, Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, and MSC SA earned at least $1 billion in doing so, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom sided with Havana Docks, a company that held a concession to operate the Port of Havana. She ruled that by using the terminal, or one of its piers, the cruise lines “committed trafficking acts.”
The company filed lawsuits against the four cruise lines for their use of the Port of Havana between 2015 and 2019, when cruise travel to Cuba was authorized.
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2022/03/22/four-cruise-lines-accused-of-prohibited-tourism-in-cuba/
(Short article, no more at link.)
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Citing 'Discriminatory Motives,' Judge Blocks Parts of Immigration Law
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom delved extensively into the development of the law and pointed to what she described as an “immigrant threat narrative” that helped lead to it.
September 23, 2021 at 01:30 PM
4 minute read
More than two years after a fierce legislative debate, a federal judge blocked key parts of an immigration law that banned so-called sanctuary cities in Florida.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, in a 110-page ruling, wrote that the “totality of the relevant facts present significant evidence, both direct and circumstantial, of the Legislature’s discriminatory motives in enacting SB 168 [the law].”
. . .
Bloom, who is based in South Florida, delved extensively into the Republican-dominated Legislature’s development of the law and pointed to what she described as an “immigrant threat narrative” that helped lead to it. She also cited behind-the-scenes involvement of the group Floridians for Immigration Enforcement in pushing for the law, including contacts with the office of Senate sponsor Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota.
“Based on the evidence presented, the court finds that plaintiffs have proven by a preponderance of the evidence that SB 168 has discriminatory or disparate effects on racial and ethnic minorities, and these discriminatory effects were both foreseeable and known to the Legislature at the time of SB 168’s enactment,” she wrote.
More:
https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2021/09/23/citing-discriminatory-motives-judge-blocks-parts-of-immigration-law/?slreturn=20220223035746
By Jim Saunders
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