SpaceX sues California regulators for banning takeoffs citing Musk's political views

SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission, claiming the ageny denied a permit in Santa Barbara County due to founder Elon Musk's political views.

Commission members voted 6-4 against expanding the space company's takeoffs from 36 to 50 per year from an Air Force base. Excerpts from the pre-judgment hearing revealed that, among other considerations, officials weighed in and negatively assessed that Musk had "aggressively injected himself into the presidential race."

In Tuesday's court filing in a Los Angeles federal court, the company accused the officials of "naked political discrimination." In addition, they accused it of improper intervention in federal affairs. SpaceX alleges that, by having contracts with federal agencies, it is carrying out a federal activity on federal territory that exceeds the authority of the state commission.

"Overt and shocking political bias"

"Rarely has a government agency made so clear that it was exceeding its authorized mandate to punish a company for the political views and statements of its largest shareholder and CEO," argued Venable LLP, which represents the company in the lawsuit. 

It also included verbatim from the hearing, including a statement from Commissioner Caryl Hart: "The concern is with SpaceX increasing its launches, not with the other companies increasing their launches . . . we’re dealing with a company . . . the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the residential race and made it clear what his point of view is."

Coastal commisioner Gretchen Newsom (no relation to the governor) said, "Elon Musk [] hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet." 

"And so while . . . we are all trying to operate in this apolitical space, we do know that the person who controls these companies has enough power to not work in the best interest, when they feel like it, of our allies," said Commissioner Dr. Justin Cummings.

This "overt, and shocking, political bias" goes against the constitutional rights of free speech and due process, according to Venable LLP.

The law firm asked the court to determine that the launch program is a federal activity in a federal zone, thus falling outside the Coastal Commission's jurisdiction. It further demanded that it label the decision unconstitutional and pay the company's court costs.

Elon Musk doubles down on Trump

Meanwhile, Musk remains on course. He is set to deliver a series of talks in Pennsylvania in support of Donald Trump. The swing state is also a key target for his America Pac, to which he contributed $75 million over the past three months.

The formerly Democratic voter began leaning toward the GOP at least four years ago. That shift accelerated this election cycle amid talks of a potential role for the entrepreneur in a second Trump administration.