By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A divided U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that the National Labor Relations Board went too far by ordering Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk to delete a 2018 tweet that said employees of the electric vehicle maker would lose stock options if they joined a union. .
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-8 to reject a 2021 NLRB order concluding that the tweet constituted an unlawful threat, after the court concluded that the tweet amounted to the freedom of speech, protected by the First of the US Constitution. Change.
“Suppressing the speeches of private citizens on topics of public interest is not a remedy traditionally supported by American law,” the court ruled in an unsigned opinion joined by eight of the nine justices in the majority.
That finding, according to those judges, all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, was enough to overturn the NLRB’s 2021 decision. As a result, it did not decide whether the tweet itself violated the National Labor Relations Act.
The court also ordered the NLRB to reconsider its decision to order Tesla to reinstate a fired pro-union employee. U.S. Circuit Judge James Dennis, in a dissent joined by seven other judges, including all of the court’s Democratic appointees, called the ruling “light on the law and the facts.”
Representatives for Tesla and the NLRB did not respond to requests for comment.
The case predated Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now known as X, in 2022 for $44 billion, a platform that the world’s richest man has long used extensively.
During an organizing campaign at Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory by the United Auto Workers union, Musk tweeted: “Nothing is stopping the Tesla team at our auto plant from voting for a union… But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing ?”
Tesla argued that the tweet did not pose a threat and merely reflected the fact that union workers at other auto companies did not receive stock options. A three-judge 5th Circuit panel disagreed in March 2023, but the full appeals court decided to rehear the case.
Musk’s rocket company SpaceX is separately suing the NLRB, claiming its internal enforcement procedures are unconstitutional.
