SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission in federal court, alleging the panel used political bias in blocking the company from increasing the number of rockets it launches from a U.S. air base in the state.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles, and in it, SpaceX is seeking an order that would stop the agency from regulating the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket launch program at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara.
In the suit, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company claimed the commission unfairly used its regulatory powers over the company’s launches because the members of the commission do not agree with Musk’s political views.
“The Commission’s public hearing record indisputably shows overt, and shocking, political bias,” SpaceX’s lawsuit says. “There is no pretext — the political basis of the Commission’s action is plain for all to see.”
The California Coastal Commission is responsible for the use of land and water within the state’s coastline, which is more than 1,000 miles long. At its Oct. 10 meeting, the commission said commercial space launches are not federal government activity and must submit to its coastal development permitting authority.
Musk, who has recently become a key donor for former President Donald Trump, has said he would accept a role in the Republican nominee’s administration if he wins in November.
One of the commissioners on the 12-member coastal panel recently accused Musk of “spewing and tweeting political falsehoods.”
Musk says in the lawsuit that any consideration of his public statements in governing his company is improper and a violation of speech rights protected under the 1st Amendment.
“Thankfully, the fundamental rights of free speech and due process enshrined in our Constitution prohibit precisely this kind of political witch hunting and abuse of power by rogue state agency officials,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also accused the commission of conducting a “constitutional overreach,” intruding on the nation’s national security, and said its launches at the base have had no “no significant effects on coastal resources.”
“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,” it said.