Texas Judge Who Owns Tesla Stock Refuses to Join Advertiser X Lawsuit

A Texas judge who was assigned to two cases involving Elon Musk’s X platform has recused himself from one of them, shortly after a report that he owns Tesla stock.

The report raised questions about O’Connor’s impartiality and X’s motivations in bringing the cases in this particular court. NPR reported that the federal court in North Texas, unlike many other courts where judges are randomly assigned, assigns cases to judges based on the division in which they are filed. . X and the defendants in the lawsuits are not based in Texas, although Musk recently said he plans to relocate it to Texas. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Critics accused X of forum shoppingor looking for a sympathetic judge or district to dismiss your cases. Their argument is strengthened by the fact that antitrust experts think that X will have difficulty proving that the advertiser boycott violated the law. Former DOJ antitrust chief Bill Baer told the BBC that, in general, “a politically motivated boycott is not an antitrust violation. It is speech protected by our First Amendment.”

Musk’s lawsuits have already managed to punish opponents with legal fees. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a coalition of advertisers created by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), a defendant in X’s lawsuit, would have dissolved following the complaint. Business Insider reported that the group felt they needed use your limited funds to fight the lawsuit.