Musk's SpaceX sues California panel, alleges political bias over rocket launches

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has sued a California commission in federal court, accusing panel members of political bias in blocking the space venture company from increasing the number of rockets it launches from a U.S. air base in the state.

    SpaceX sued the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday in Los Angeles, seeking an order that would bar the agency from regulating the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket launch program at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara.

    The lawsuit claimed the commission, which oversees the use of land and water within the state’s more than 1,000 miles of coastline, unfairly asserted regulatory powers over the company’s launches based on a disapproval of Musk’s political views.

The agency, at its Oct. 10 meeting, had said commercial space launches are not federal government activity and must submit to the commission’s coastal development permitting authority.

The commission, SpaceX and its lawyers at the law firm Venable did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday morning.

Musk, whose politics have taken a sharp right turn, has endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and become a mega donor, campaigning for the former president and saying he would accept a role in Trump's administration if he wins.

California has shifted to a solidly Democratic state in recent decades with the party holding statewide offices and throwing its weight behind Democratic U.S. presidential candidates in recent elections.

One commissioner on the 12-member coastal panel recently accused Musk, who has increasingly asserted his voice in the U.S. presidential race, of “spewing and tweeting political falsehoods.”

    Musk’s lawsuit called any consideration of his public statements improper, violating speech rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

It also accused the commission of “unconstitutional overreach,” intruding on the national security of the U.S. and other federal interests, and said launches at the base have had "no significant effects on coastal resources.”

    "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,” it said.

    SpaceX has launched Falcon 9 rockets from the central California air base since 2013. The Air Force has proposed increasing the number of SpaceX launches from 36 to 50.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; editing by Susan Heavey and Chizu Nomiyama)