SpaceX must face sex-bias claims in a Los Angeles courtroom after a federal appeals panel rejected its request to have a case brought by eight fired engineers sent to private arbitration, according to court papers obtained Friday.
The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge’s ruling that the engineers’ wrongful retaliation claims were exempt from the arbitration agreements they signed at SpaceX when the rocket company was based in Hawthorne, the ruling stated this week.
The engineers filed suit in 2024, claiming SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ordered their firing after they circulated a letter calling the billionaire a “distraction and embarrassment” and urging executives to disavow sexually charged comments he made on social media.
In 2022, Musk used his Twitter platform to announce a purported plan to open a university for large-breasted women, using a profane term for “breasts.” Another message expressed anger at an upcoming LGBT Pride Month.
“Musk knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” the plaintiffs claim in their lawsuit first filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and later removed to LA federal court.
SpaceX has denied the allegations.