Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the official opening of the new Tesla electric car manufacturing plant on March 22, 2022 near Gruenheide, Germany. | Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images
A federal judge in Philadelphia on Friday sent a lawsuit back to state court to hear allegations that tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Donald Trump-aligned super PAC are running an illegal lottery.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta scheduled a hearing in the case at 10 a.m. Monday at Philadelphia City Hall.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner filed the lawsuit Monday claiming that Musk and his America PAC violated the state lottery law and consumer protection laws by giving away $1 million a day to randomly selected registered voters in Pennsylvania and other swing states who signed a petition.
Musk’s lawyers filed papers in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday night to remove the case from Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. His lawyers asserted that because the lawsuit involved issues adjacent to the presidential election, it should be heard in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert said in a memorandum Friday that the federal court has no jurisdiction over the claims. For a case to be heard in federal court it must involve an issue of federal law.
“Defendants have not identified any question of federal law that must be resolved in Plaintiff’s favor in order to prove either state-law claim,” Pappert wrote.
Krasner’s office issued a statement by attorney John Summers who said the ruling was consistent with Kranser’s position that the case belongs in state court.
Musk, the owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Tesla CEO and SpaceX investor, has campaigned for former President Donald Trump in the final weeks of his reelection bid.
His attorney Matthew Haverstick did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday. Haverstick filed a motion Friday afternoon to quash the Philadelphia court’s order for Musk to personally attend a hearing.
The motion asserted that Krasner’s lawsuit is politically motivated and the requirement for Musk to attend a hearing is meant to harass Musk.
“Plaintiff seeks to harass Defendant Musk, and improperly sideline him in the final days leading up to a hotly contested presidential election,” Haverstick’s motion says. “To say this is improper would be a gross understatement; seeking to chill Defendant Musk’s exercise of his First Amendment rights is absolutely unconstitutional coming from a government official.”
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