ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — ******** restrictions on *******-based cruise ships will remain in place after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a previous ruling that sided with a ******* lawsuit challenging the regulations.

The one-paragraph decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was filed at 11:50 p.m. Saturday, just minutes before a Tampa judge’s previous ruling on the U.S. Centers for ******* Control and Prevention restrictions was set to take effect.

The judges’ issuance of a temporary stay keeps the *** regulations regarding *******-based cruise ships in place while the *** appeals the June decision by U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday.

The lawsuit, championed by ********** Gov. Ron DeSantis, claims that the ***’s multiple-step process to allow cruising from ******* is overly burdensome, harming both a multibillion-dollar industry that provides some 159,000 jobs and revenue collected by the state.

A spokeswoman for DeSantis did not immediately respond Sunday to an email and a text message seeking comment. In court filing, attorneys for ******* urged the 11th Circuit to reject the *** request to keep its rules intact for now.

“The equities overwhelmingly favor allowing the cruise industry to enjoy its first summer season in two years while this Court sorts out the ***’s contentions on appeal,” *******’s lawyers argued.

The ***, however, said keeping the rules in place would prevent future ******** outbreaks on ships that are vulnerable to the spread of the ***** because of their close quarters and frequent stops at foreign ports.

“The undisputed evidence shows that unregulated cruise ship operations would exacerbate the spread of ********, and that the harm to the public that would result from such operations cannot be undone,” the *** said in a court filing.

The *** first flatly halted cruise ships from sailing in March 2020 in response to the *********** ********, which had affected passengers and crew on numerous ships.

Then the *** on Oct. 30 of last year imposed a four-phase conditional framework it said would allow the industry to gradually resume operations if certain thresholds were met. Those included ***** mitigation procedures and a simulated cruise to test them before embarking regular passengers.

Merryday’s decision concluded that the *** can’t enforce those rules for *******-based ships and that they should merely be considered nonbinding recommendations or guidelines. Several cruise lines have begun preliminary cruises under those guidelines, which the Tampa judge agreed with ******* are too onerous.

“******* persuasively claims that the conditional sailing order will shut down most cruises through the summer and perhaps much longer,” the judge wrote in June, adding that ******* “faces an increasingly threatening and imminent prospect that the cruise industry will depart the state.”

The 11th Circuit’s brief decision did not include any opinions from the judges, which the panel said would be released later. The decision noted that one appeals judge dissented.

Disney Cruise Lines held its first simulated sailing under *** rules Saturday when the Disney Dream departed from Port Canaveral, *******. The passengers were volunteer Disney employees.