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Supreme Court Denies Elon Musk’s Appeal Over SEC Settlement on Tesla Tweets
(CTN News) – The Supreme Court dismissed Elon Musk‘s appeal on Monday over a settlement with securities regulators that required him to obtain prior approval for some social media posts about Tesla, the electric vehicle firm he controls.
The justices did not comment, leaving in place lower-court findings against Elon Musk, who claimed that the condition constitutes “prior restraint” on his speech, a violation of the First Amendment.
“Elon Musk’s Twitter Remarks Lead to Supreme Court Decision on Tesla’s SEC Settlement”
The action comes from remarks Musk sent on Twitter in 2018, claiming to have secured money to take Tesla private. The tweets caused the company’s share price to rise, resulting in a temporary suspension of trade.
The deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission required that his Twitter messages, now identified as X, be vetted first by a Tesla attorney.
It also demanded that Musk and Tesla pay civil fines for tweets in which Musk said he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
The funding was not secured; therefore, Tesla stayed public.
The SEC’s initial enforcement case against Musk claimed that his tweets regarding going private violated anti-fraud provisions of securities laws. In 2021, the government examined if Musk breached the deal by asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock without first getting approval.
Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022.
