Justice Dept. to Drop Discrimination Case Against Elon Musk’s SpaceX

The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday that it would dismiss a case against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in which the rocket company had been accused of discriminating against people based on their citizenship status.

In an unopposed motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Justice Department said it intended to file a notice of dismissal with prejudice, which means prosecutors would not be able to file these charges again.

The motion did not say why the case was being dropped.

The Justice Department had filed the case against SpaceX on Aug. 23, 2023, accusing the company of violating federal law in its hiring practices.

SpaceX did not fairly consider job applications from refugees and people who have been granted asylum in the United States, the department said. SpaceX also discouraged refugees and asylees from applying for jobs, refused to hire them even when they were qualified, and rejected them repeatedly because of their citizenship status, the department said.

Mr. Musk had said at the time that SpaceX was told it could not hire anyone who was not a citizen or permanent resident of the United States because of export control laws. “This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes,” he had posted on X.

The Justice Department had rejected that position, saying that export control laws posed no such restrictions.

This is a developing story and will be updated.