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The US government has indicated it will drop a long-running case against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in which it had alleged that the company’s hiring procedures unlawfully discriminated against asylum seekers and refugees.
The Department of Justice’s move comes as Musk, who has repeatedly criticised the case, takes an increasingly prominent role in Donald Trump’s administration, overseeing aggressive cost-cutting measures across government, including at agencies that regulate his six businesses.
The DoJ first sued SpaceX in 2023 during Joe Biden’s presidency, claiming that the company posted jobs that required applicants to be US citizens or permanent residents, despite there being no legal bar to non-citizens performing the roles in question.
Prosecutors alleged SpaceX “actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company”.
Musk denied the allegations, writing in a social media post at the time: “SpaceX was told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offence.”
He added: “We couldn’t even hire Canadian citizens, despite Canada being part of NORAD! This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”
In an unopposed motion filed to a Texas federal court on Thursday evening, the DoJ asked for a stay on the case to be lifted “for the purpose of allowing the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to file a notice of dismissal of the administrative proceeding”.
It did not provide any justification for the intended dismissal, but a judge previously indicated that the DoJ might not have had the authority to pursue the claims against SpaceX.
Musk, the DoJ and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk has become the de facto leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which is cancelling contracts and suspending staff at several agencies, including those that have investigated SpaceX, Tesla and others. The White House has said Musk would “excuse himself” from any potential conflicts of interest.
This week, Sean Duffy, the transport secretary, confirmed that Doge emissaries were in place at the Federal Aviation Administration, an agency that had proposed fining SpaceX. Duffy told a Senate hearing last month that if confirmed, he would review the FAA’s proposed $633,000 fine for SpaceX violating launch license requirements during two 2023 missions.
This week, a Texas environmental group dropped a separate case against SpaceX over alleged water pollution at its launch site near Brownsville.
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