An appeals court rejected SpaceX’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the National Labor Relations Board that accused the company of illegally firing engineers critical of CEO Elon Musk.
On Wednesday, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans unanimously ruled that SpaceX must give the lower courts time to rule on the company’s legal challenges to the NLRB’s constitutional authority.
SpaceX sought to dismiss the lawsuit brought last year by the NLRB, which claimed the company fired former employees in retaliation for critical comments they made about Mr. Musk. The fired employees penned a letter in 2022 accusing Mr. Musk and SpaceX of tolerating sexual misconduct and gender discrimination. SpaceX said the engineers were fired for violating company policy.
In response to the lawsuit, the company filed suit against the NLRB, claiming the board’s structure violates SpaceX’s constitutional right to a trial by jury.
That case is ongoing, and 5th Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez on Wednesday wrote that even if SpaceX’s challenges have merit, they’re not enough to block the lawsuit.
“Here, SpaceX’s sole conceivable injuries stem from participating in a teleconference in an unconstitutional administrative proceeding,” Judge Ramirez wrote. “These are not sufficiently serious to warrant interlocutory appeal.”
Representatives for the NLRB and SpaceX didn’t respond to Washington Times requests for comment.
Following President Trump’s removal of Gwynne Wilcox from the NLRB in January, the board is without its three-member quorum and can’t decide cases. Only two members sit on the board: Marvin Kaplan, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in January, and Democratic appointee David Prouty.
Additionally, Amazon has joined SpaceX in challenging the NLRB’s constitutional legitimacy. Amazon won a temporary pause on an NLRB lawsuit in October after suing the board over its in-house enforcement proceedings, claiming they were unconstitutional. Amazon and SpaceX’s challenges have been consolidated.
