SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he’s filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission after commission members rejected his plan to launch rockets - citing their contempt for his political leanings and comments.

“What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a ‘coastal commission’ in California!” Musk wrote Sunday on X.com (formerly, Twitter):

“Incredibly inappropriate. What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a ‘coastal commission’ in California! Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment.”

“*Tuesday, since court is closed on Monday,” Musk followed up.

Musk was reacting to a Politico story headlined:

“California officials cite Elon Musk’s politics in rejecting SpaceX launches. State officials cited Musk’s antics in rejecting SpaceX’s plan to launch more rockets off the Central California coast.”

“Elon Musk’s tweets about the presidential election and spreading falsehoods about Hurricane Helene are endangering his ability to launch rockets off California’s central coast,” Politico reported, adding that “commissioners raised concerns about Musk’s political rhetoric.”

“We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,” Chairwoman Caryl Hart said.

“Her (Hart’s) colleague Mike Wilson ranted about Musk’s wealth and his social-media platform, X,” National Review reports.

“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods, claiming his desire to help hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Commissioner Gretchen Newsom said.

 “The (commission’s) rejection was clearly based on petty politics disguised by a fig leaf of regulatory concern,” National Review Report John Fund writes, noting that the Commission has a history of political bias:

“The record is rife with such abuses. Arnie Steinberg, who was appointed to the commission in the 1990s by GOP governor Pete Wilson, says it is ‘riddled with a combination of corruption and arrogance on the part of an environmentally extreme staff.’ He told me there are no limits to its desire to micromanage coastal matters, and it frequently collaborates with environmental groups and local-government bodies to stop development.”

The U.S. Air Force had sought permission to launch 50 SpaceX rockets annually from its base in Santa Barbara County.