SpaceX sues California Coastal Commission
Wants to be a dictator
As promised by Elon Musk, SpaceX has now filed suit against California Coastal Commission, and its commissioners, accusing it of violating Musk’s first amendment rights and using its regulatory power against the company simply because those commissioners disagree with Musk’s political positions.
You can read SpaceX’s lawsuit filing here [pdf]. From its introduction:
[The Commission has engaged in naked political discrimination against Plaintiff Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in violation of the rights of free speech and due process enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. 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. Second, the Commission is trying to unlawfully regulate space launch programs—which are critical to national security and other national policy objectives—at Vandenberg Space Force Base (the Base), a federal enclave and the world’s second busiest spaceport.
The lawsuit stems from the comments made by the commissioners when then voted against the military’s plan to allow SpaceX to increase its launch rate at Vandenberg spaceport to up to 50 launches per year. In those comments, the commissioners made it clear that the main reason they were voting against the motion was because they were offended by Elon Musk and his political positions, not because the company was doing anything wrong. In fact, the commissioners knew SpaceX was doing nothing wrong. As noted at the first link above:
Staff at the commission recommended that the commissioners concur with the USAF. They argued that the Air Force had committed to implementing protective measures against sonic booms, and pointed out a lack of evidence that increasing launches from 36 to 50 annually would have adverse environmental effects.
The commission’s political animus against Musk and SpaceX was further underlined by this fact noted in the lawsuit:
[T] he Commission recently approved another commercial space launch operator launching up to 60 launches a year from the same Base, accepting that this operator’s launch program, including commercial launches, are federal agency activities.
SpaceX also noted at length that the commission’s decision literally violated the commission’s own governing statue, which expressly excludes federal land from its regulatory authority. The military has full power to make this decision, and only confers with the commission out of a courtesy. In the past the commission understood this, and the two worked well together to make both happy.
Still valid, despite the desires of the thugs
on the California Coastal Commission
Nor is this lawsuit the commission’s only problem. California state assemblyman Bill Essayli has filed a public records request for all its records and communications in connection with its vote. It is almost certain those records will confirm the political animus towards Musk and provide SpaceX more evidence for its lawsuit.
Much of the commission’s behavior I think stems from the COVID epidemic of 2020. At that time the panic was so severe that the public made no objections when government officials routinely violated their oaths of office as well as the Bill of Rights and the Constitution to unilaterally impose new mandates. “We have to do something!” was the mantra, even if there was no legal right to do it.
Bad habits however can become addictive, and power can become corrupting. The commissioners appear stuck in that same mode from 2020, and have apparently assumed that they have the right to make any ruling they want, just because it is what they feel is right, regardless of their legal right to do it.
They are about to find out that it isn’t 2020, the public is no longer panicked, and that there are laws in this country.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Wants to be a dictator
As promised by Elon Musk, SpaceX has now filed suit against California Coastal Commission, and its commissioners, accusing it of violating Musk’s first amendment rights and using its regulatory power against the company simply because those commissioners disagree with Musk’s political positions.
You can read SpaceX’s lawsuit filing here [pdf]. From its introduction:
[The Commission has engaged in naked political discrimination against Plaintiff Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in violation of the rights of free speech and due process enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. 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. Second, the Commission is trying to unlawfully regulate space launch programs—which are critical to national security and other national policy objectives—at Vandenberg Space Force Base (the Base), a federal enclave and the world’s second busiest spaceport.
The lawsuit stems from the comments made by the commissioners when then voted against the military’s plan to allow SpaceX to increase its launch rate at Vandenberg spaceport to up to 50 launches per year. In those comments, the commissioners made it clear that the main reason they were voting against the motion was because they were offended by Elon Musk and his political positions, not because the company was doing anything wrong. In fact, the commissioners knew SpaceX was doing nothing wrong. As noted at the first link above:
Staff at the commission recommended that the commissioners concur with the USAF. They argued that the Air Force had committed to implementing protective measures against sonic booms, and pointed out a lack of evidence that increasing launches from 36 to 50 annually would have adverse environmental effects.
The commission’s political animus against Musk and SpaceX was further underlined by this fact noted in the lawsuit:
[T] he Commission recently approved another commercial space launch operator launching up to 60 launches a year from the same Base, accepting that this operator’s launch program, including commercial launches, are federal agency activities.
SpaceX also noted at length that the commission’s decision literally violated the commission’s own governing statue, which expressly excludes federal land from its regulatory authority. The military has full power to make this decision, and only confers with the commission out of a courtesy. In the past the commission understood this, and the two worked well together to make both happy.
Still valid, despite the desires of the thugs
on the California Coastal Commission
Nor is this lawsuit the commission’s only problem. California state assemblyman Bill Essayli has filed a public records request for all its records and communications in connection with its vote. It is almost certain those records will confirm the political animus towards Musk and provide SpaceX more evidence for its lawsuit.
Much of the commission’s behavior I think stems from the COVID epidemic of 2020. At that time the panic was so severe that the public made no objections when government officials routinely violated their oaths of office as well as the Bill of Rights and the Constitution to unilaterally impose new mandates. “We have to do something!” was the mantra, even if there was no legal right to do it.
Bad habits however can become addictive, and power can become corrupting. The commissioners appear stuck in that same mode from 2020, and have apparently assumed that they have the right to make any ruling they want, just because it is what they feel is right, regardless of their legal right to do it.
They are about to find out that it isn’t 2020, the public is no longer panicked, and that there are laws in this country.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I’ve seen the occasional article complaining about the California Coastal Commission going back several years now. It has enormous, mostly unchecked power, and operates very much in the mode of “we must make everything green, while accommodating multi-use and low-income users, and any changes will happen where I don’t have to see it and it doesn’t affect my property value.”
As a lifelong citizen of California and holder of several State professional licenses, I’m disgusted by the Coastal Commission. Not that it means anything, but I support calls for the resignation of those Commission members who are on the record as opposing the SpaceX application for political, rather than technical reasons.
I hope Elon wins this.
While many of folks here are libertarian–were I President, I’d push to Federalize oil drilling permits out of the DoE and take state permission out of the game with the Coast Guard given orders to shoot Greenpeace protestors on sight as energy is a national security issue.
Boca would be Area 52 with the same level of security.
From the SpaceX Complaint:
This was a revelation to me. I was dying to know who this other launch provider was. I thought it had to be ULA. Well, it turns out, it’s Phantom Space. Phantom even tweeted this out on June 19: “Phantom Space received a Finding Of No Significant Impact (FONSI) at SLC-5 at Vandenberg, where we are approved to conduct up to 60 launches annually. This is the final hurdle before we can start turning this former NASA Scout launch site into a two-pad site for Daytona launches.”
Granted, SpaceX uses bigger rockets making bigger booms than Phantom does. But it’s as nakedly obvious as possible that they’re rejecting SpaceX for political reasons.
I hope Elon wins this suit resoundingly, completely.
I have a feeling the ancient babylonian entities won’t go extinct w/o a real fight to the death this time.