Texas Judge Reed O’Connor, overseeing Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the smear website Media Matters for America, denied their motion to dismiss the case on Thursday. Media Matters had filed for dismissal in early March, arguing that X’s case lacked “personal jurisdiction,” was filed in an “improper venue,” and failed to “state a claim.” However, O’Connor rejected all of these claims, according to court records.
Judge O’Connor dismissed all three of Media Matters’ complaints.
As reported by Engadget, the lawsuit, filed last year in federal court, seeks damages from Media Matters over what X alleges were “maliciously manufactured” images that suggested X’s platform placed Neo-Nazi and white nationalist content next to advertisers’ images, causing many advertisers to leave the site. While Media Matters did not fabricate the images, X claims that the media watchdog’s intentional targeting of certain accounts to bypass ad filters caused significant harm to the social media company.
Although Musk’s other companies are based in Texas, they aren’t directly involved in the Media Matters lawsuit. X closed its San Francisco offices earlier this month, and Musk announced in July that X’s headquarters will relocate to Austin. Tesla moved its headquarters to Texas from California in 2021, and SpaceX shifted from Delaware to Texas earlier this year after a judge threw out a $56 billion pay package from Delaware.
In dismissing the personal jurisdiction argument, O’Connor highlighted that two of X’s “blue-chip” advertisers, AT&T and Oracle, which were included in Media Matters’ coverage, are based in Texas. He cited the landmark 2002 Internet defamation case Revell v. Lidov, quoting the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ assertion: “If you are going to pick a fight in Texas, it is reasonable to expect that it be settled there.”
Elon Musk celebrated the news, responding to a tweet on X from George Behizy with “LFG!”—an acronym for “Let’s F**king Go!”
This decision comes on the heels of news last week that far-left Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee from Washington, D.C., ordered Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to halt his investigation into Media Matters for America. In response, Bailey told The Gateway Pundit, “Make no mistake: Media Matters ran to a DC Court in order to get out of complying with our investigation. The DC Court’s order effectively shuts down Missouri courts. We will be appealing the decision, and look forward to resuming our investigation on behalf of all affected Missourians.”
Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama donor, is also known for his aggressive prosecution of Trump supporters.
