The Texas Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that environmental organizations cannot sue to block SpaceX from closing Boca Chica Beach during rocket launches, effectively ending a legal battle that began in 2021.
Court denies legal standing
The court's decision, authored by Justice Rebeca Huddle, found that the plaintiffs—Save RGV, the Sierra Club, and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas—did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit. The ruling upheld a trial court's dismissal with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be refiled.
The lawsuit challenged a 2013 state law, House Bill 2623, which amended the Texas Open Beaches Act to allow temporary closures of Boca Chica Beach during spaceflight activities for safety reasons. The groups argued that these closures violated the Texas constitution, which was amended in 2009 with 77% voter support to protect public beach access.
Legal basis for closure
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the SpaceX launch site after the company demonstrated it had authority to limit public access under HB 2623. The blast radius of SpaceX launches includes Boca Chica Beach, which is located near the company's Starbase facility in Brownsville, Texas.
Save RGV contended in its initial lawsuit that the closures constituted a "premeditated scheme by a private company, with the State’s help, to take control of public land for its own profit, impairing the public’s constitutional right in the process."
Court's reasoning
Justice Huddle wrote that the 2009 constitutional amendment explicitly states that private parties do not have the right to bring lawsuits to enforce beach-access protections. "The plaintiffs are private parties – organizations whose beachgoing members claim the temporary closures of Boca Chica Beach conflict with their constitutional right to access and use the beach," Huddle wrote. "Because the claims are not viable, it follows that the defendants, all of whom are governmental actors, retain their immunity from suit."
The Texas Attorney General's office intervened in the case to defend the 2013 law.
Reaction from plaintiffs
Marisa Perales, an attorney representing the environmental groups and the tribe, told the Texas Tribune that the ruling "elevates SpaceX’s interests over Texans’ rights." She added: "The government has essentially given Boca Chica Beach to SpaceX to use as its blast zone for its rocket launches and other related activities, and the supreme court appears to have endorsed that decision, by saying that the affected public has no remedy to enforce their constitutional right to access their own beach."
SpaceX, led by CEO Elon Musk, went public earlier this month in the largest stock market debut in history, making Musk the world's first trillionaire.
