US judge rejects SpaceX lawsuit claiming anti-Musk bias

By Mike Scarcella

March 14 (Reuters) - Elon Musk’s SpaceX has failed to establish it was a victim of political bias by a California agency that voted to reject expanding its rocket launches in the state, a federal judge said in a preliminary decision on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr in Los Angeles said he would dismiss the case because SpaceX had not shown it was harmed by the California Coastal Commission's vote against its plan to expand its rocket launches from the Vandenberg U.S. Space Force Base in Santa Barbara.

Blumenfeld said he would issue a final ruling following a scheduled Friday hearing on the tentative order.

The California commission said last year that SpaceX launches were not federal agency activity and needed to meet state regulatory requirements. The U.S. Air Force objected to the commission’s October decision and said it would proceed with additional SpaceX launches of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg base.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for the commission had no immediate comment on the preliminary order. The Air Force is not a defendant.

SpaceX contracts with the U.S. government on satellite deployment and other payloads. Lawyers for SpaceX filed the lawsuit in October, before Republican Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency and named Musk a key advisor on a government-wide cost-cutting initiative.

The lawsuit claimed the commission, which oversees use of land and water within the state’s more than 1,000 miles of coastline, unfairly asserted regulatory powers over the company’s launches based on its disapproval of Musk’s political views and not environmental considerations.

Blumenfeld concluded in his tentative order that the commission's vote “did not affect SpaceX’s ability to launch” because the Air Force — as the ultimate decisionmaker — overruled the commission.

He also found that SpaceX did not allege that the commission vote caused SpaceX or Musk to refrain from any protected speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

The judge said SpaceX could seek approval to file an amended lawsuit to address the court’s concerns.

The case is Space Exploration Technologies Corp v. California Coastal Commission et al, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:24-cv-08893-SB-SK.

For plaintiff: Tyler Welti, Colin Vandell and Mitchell Mirviss of Venable

For defendants: David Alderson and Jessica Bonitz of the California Attorney General’s Office

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