News
Cards Against Humanity says in new lawsuit that SpaceX has destroyed some of its South Texas property
Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The game company Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $15 million, accusing the corporation that launches rockets from Texas of illegally trespassing on South Texas land and destroying property.
The lawsuit, filed in Cameron County, was posted on a website the company is using to call attention to the civil battle. The suit claims that SpaceX has used Cards Against Humanity’s once “pristine” property filled with wild grass and cacti and changed the entire dynamic of the area by using the land as a construction staging site. SpaceX acquired vacant lots along the same road as the property and has constructed buildings around the area. According to pictures included in the lawsuit, the property now looks like an unfinished worksite filled with machinery and piles of materials.
In 2017, Cards Against Humanity created a crowd-funding campaign, called CAH Saves America, to buy land that would block the construction of a border barrier former President Donald Trump vowed to build along Texas’ boundary with Mexico. As a part of the campaign,150,000 people paid $15 each to protect a piece of land along the U.S.-Mexico border and three miles away from SpaceX’s launch facility. Cards against Humanity now owns the property.
If Cards Against Humanity wins the lawsuit, it said it they will equally split the lawsuit’s net proceeds among all 150,000 of the contributors, up to $100 each.
“150,000 people gave us their hard-earned money, and in exchange we vowed to protect this land from racist billionaires and their dumb vanity projects,” the company said on their website devoted to the lawsuit.
Cards Against Humanity isn’t alone in criticizing SpaceX’s arrival in the region. In a Reuters article published Friday, several people across South Texas, including residents in Brownsville, have voiced their concerns about Musk’s encroachment on their properties saying that this is an example of unchecked expansion.