Musk’s SpaceX Political Bias Suit on Launches Poised to Advance

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s evidence that a California agency targeted the company with regulation over Elon Musk’s political views is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss but isn’t necessarily “compelling,” a federal judge said Friday.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. of the US District Court for the Central District of California said he’d tentatively allow to survive part of the complaint against the California Coastal Commission, which voted against more SpaceX launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in October allegedly based on “overt political bias.”

The agency didn’t have legal authority for the vote as it conflicted with federal law, according to the aerospace company, and the move was retaliation against SpaceX based on the CEO’s protected political speech. The commission is demanding SpaceX get a permit for launches, inconsistent with its requirements for other operators, the company said.

Blumenfeld didn’t appear convinced by the agency’s argument Friday that comments from its individual members against Musk’s politics and labor practices don’t affect the agency’s decisions in general.

Blumenfeld said he was skeptical the commissioners were “simply musing” when in the October hearing commissioners said Musk had been “hopping around the country spewing and tweeting political falsehoods.”

“You’re asking the court to lose sight of the forest for the trees,” he said.

If it’s “so clear” that the Coastal Commission doesn’t intend to carry out its threat of enforcement against SpaceX, why doesn’t the commission say so, he said.

Attorney David Alderson, for the agency, said his clients were “not prepared to go that far.”

However, Blumenfeld also pressed attorney Tyler Welti, for SpaceX, to show the threat was harming the company enough to have standing.

Welti said he doesn’t need to meet a high standard of proof, because the threats of enforcement are hanging over and interfering with SpaceX’s business.

“The sword of Damocles is still there,” Welti said.

Venable LLP represents SpaceX.

The case is Space Exploration Techs. Corp. v. California Coastal Comm’n., C.D. Cal., No. 2:24-cv-08893, 5/30/25.