A Mississippi federal court has denied SpaceX’s’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit over its operations in Southaven, Mississippi, clearing the way for civil rights groups to continue to sue the tech giant for alleged Clean Air Act violations.
In an Oct. 30 ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi held that the NAACP has statutory standing to bring the lawsuit, which accuses SpaceX’s artificial intelligence division—formerly known as xAI and now called SpaceXSI—of endangering public health by operating dozens of unpermitted gas turbines at its Southaven energy plant. The court also rejected claims from SpaceX that the turbines are exempt from standard permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act.
“This decision is another important victory in our effort to hold xAI accountable,” Abre’ Connor, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP, said in a Friday news release. “Our position has been clear: xAI cannot operate gas turbines without the required permits. Now that the motion to dismiss has been denied, we look forward to continuing to defend our position in court.”
SpaceX’s Southaven plant powers its Colossus 2 data center in neighboring Memphis, Tennessee, which in turn powers Grok, the company’s contentious supercomputer. Since August 2025, Mississippi has allowed the complex to operate up to 69 gas-fired combustion turbines without permits, claiming state regulations provide up to one-year exemptions for turbines classified as “temporary-mobile” engines. Residents and advocacy groups have raised repeated concerns over the machines, which emit an array of air pollutants linked to various chronic illnesses.
SpaceX absorbed xAI earlier this year and renamed it, though legal filings still refer to the AI company by its former name.
In April, the NAACP and its Mississippi affiliate sued then-xAI, arguing that operating a large, stationary emissions source like the Southaven plant without permits constitutes a clear breach of federal law. The district court appeared to validate that argument in its Oct. 30 ruling, writing that because the site does not meet the federal criteria for a “mobile source” included in the state’s air quality enforcement plan, “the Plant was not (and is not) exempted from permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act.”
The court also nixed SpaceX’s efforts to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds, affirming the NAACP’s right to bring the complaint under the Clean Air Act’s citizen suit provision.
“The Clean Air Act promises that communities that have been failed by federal, state, and local leaders have the right to go to court to protect themselves from illegal pollution,” said Kym Meyer, the litigation director at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the NAACP in the case. “This ruling makes it clear that this right cannot be tossed aside simply because a massive corporation finds it inconvenient.”
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to SpaceX for comment but did not hear back by press time.
The Oct. 30 order comes after the court rejected a separate motion for dismissal from the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, which is intervening in the lawsuit on behalf of SpaceX. The court has yet to rule on the NAACP’s request for an injunction to stop the unpermitted turbines from running while the broader litigation plays out, SELC attorney Patrick Anderson confirmed on Monday.
“The main next step is we’re asking … the court to shut down the turbines until (xAI) gets a permit,” Anderson said, adding that the court will hold a hearing to decide on the injunction. “We’ve been emphasizing every chance we can that this is urgent.”
The NAACP’s lawsuit is one of multiple complaints currently pending against SpaceX, which is expanding its Mississippi footprint and building multiple new data centers in Southaven. In June, a group of residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging that persistent noise and vibrations from its turbines are degrading their quality of life. SpaceX has since offered to buy out some homeowners if they agree not to join the lawsuit, sparking fears among some renters that they might be displaced.
Separate from the litigation, Mississippi regulators will revisit a controversial air permit issued to SpaceX in March at an evidentiary hearing next week. SELC is challenging the permit, which allows the tech giant to install 41 permanent gas turbines at its Southaven plant. Those turbines would replace the unpermitted engines currently housed at the site, which SpaceX says will be fully retired by July 2027.
The evidentiary hearing is open to the public and will take place on Monday, Nov. 9, at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality office in Jackson, Mississippi. Proceedings will begin at 9 a.m. and continue into Tuesday, Nov. 10, if necessary.
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