Billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made good on his threat to sue the California Coastal Commission, after that body of appointed officials voted to reject expanding the number of SpaceX rocket launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Central Coast.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and posted online by Reuters, names the Coastal Commission and its board members as defendants, alleging that the entity “egregiously and unlawfully” overreached its authority and “engaged in naked political discrimination” against Musk.
“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,” the lawsuit read in part.
A spokesman for the commission declined to comment when contacted.
SpaceX, through its Space Force and Air Force partners, petitioned the commission last week to increase the annual number of permitted Falcon 9 rocket launches from 36 to 50.
The commission, whose authority includes regulating environmental risks to the coastline, last Thursday thanked the Space Force and Air Force representatives for their efforts but argued that SpaceX should have been the entity to reach out directly.
And then Commissioner Gretchen Newsom, no relation to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, read a prepared statement explaining why she was a “no” vote.
Newsom cited a “pattern of negligence” at SpaceX that has led to hundreds of workplace injuries and a more dangerous workplace as part of her justification.
She blasted Musk for relocating business operations from California to Texas due to “his bigoted beliefs against California’s safeguards and protections of our transgender community.”
From there, Newsom accused Musk of “hopping around the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA” and defrauding hurricane victims with his offer of allegedly free Starlink satellite service that actually costs $120 a month after 30 days.
“A sick ploy to gain customers that are facing tremendous burden and dire straits,” she said.
Musk later expanded the free service through the rest of the year.
Musk, through his social media platform X, has boosted misinformation about the Federal Emergency Management Agency as it responds to the disaster zones left behind by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
He has also made several anti-transgender remarks in recent years, leading his daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, who is trans, to publicly disown him.
Newsom wasn’t the only one to speak out against Musk at the board meeting.
“Here we’re dealing with a company the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race, and made it clear what his point of view is, and he’s managed a company in a way that was just described by Commissioner Newsom that I find to be very disturbing,” said Chair Caryl Hart in her remarks.
Hart was referring to Musk’s outspoken support for former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The lawsuit says the commission had no business injecting politics into its deliberations.
“The commission’s public hearing record indisputably shows overt, and shocking, political bias. There is no pretext — the political basis of the commission’s action is plain for all to see,” the lawsuit reads in part.
The lawsuit demands that the Falcon 9 launch program be declared “federal agency activity” that would exempt it from certification requirements and that the court enjoin the commission from enforcing the Coastal Act and its regulatory authority over those launches.
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