|
The justices turned away Musk's appeal of a lower court's
decision upholding the 2018 settlement reached after he said on
social media that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private
- a statement the SEC in a legal action called false and
misleading.
Musk's settlement resolved the SEC lawsuit accusing him of
defrauding investors. Under the agreement, Musk and Tesla each
paid $20 million fines and he gave up his role as the company's
chairman. Musk also agreed to let a Tesla lawyer pre-approve
some posts he made on the social media platform then called
Twitter before Musk bought the company and renamed it X.
Musk later sought to terminate the pre-approval mandate, with
his lawyers in a court filing calling it a "government-imposed
muzzle" that amounted to an illegal prior restraint on his
speech.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan in 2022 rejected
Musk's request. A three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd
U.S. Circuit of Appeals in 2023 upheld that decision.
The 2nd Circuit said Musk chose to allow screening of his
Twitter posts, and had no right to revisit the matter "because
he has now changed his mind." The 2nd Circuit last year denied
Musk's request to rehear the case, prompting his appeal to the
Supreme Court.
Musk's lawyers argued that the SEC had no right to impose, as a
condition of settling, a "gag rule" that they contend violated
the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment constraints on
governmental limits on free speech.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
