The US Justice Department on February 20 said it would dismiss a case against Elon Musk’s SpaceX𓃲, where the company had been accused of discriminating based on citizenship status.
As per reports, in an unopposed motion filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Justice Department꧑ stated its intention to file a notice of dismissal with prejudice, meaning the charges could not be refiled. The motion did not specify why the case was being dropped. The Justice Department had initially filed the case against SpaceX on August 23, 2023, alleging violations of federal hiring laws.
𝐆SpaceX 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.
ജMusk 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.
