Supreme Court Denies Musk’s Bid to Overturn SEC Settlement over Fraudulent Tesla Tweets

The Supreme Court declined Elon Musk’s petition on Monday to rescind his settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2018, which resulted from allegedly fraudulent tweets about Tesla. In one such message that year, Musk claimed he had “funding secured” for taking the automaker private at $420 a share, an assertion the SEC said was false and led to market volatility in Tesla’s stock price. As part of his settlement with the regulatory body, Musk agreed that any future posts regarding Tesla on social media must first be authorized by one of its legal representatives due to concerns about their accuracy or potential impact on share prices. Although he has subsequently questioned this provision as an infringement upon his First Amendment rights, a US District Court and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals previously refused Musk’s request to repeal it since they could find no evidence suggesting that SEC used consent decree against protected speech or had acted maliciously. The three-judge panel in charge of this case remarked last year: “Had Musk wished to preserve his right to tweet without even limited internal monitoring related specifically Tesla issues, he had the ‘right to litigate and defend [hisself]’ with regard to charges presented by the SEC or attempt bargaining for a different agreement – but he chose not to do so.”