Justice Department moved to dismiss NAACP's Clean Air Act suit against Musk's xAI, citing national security
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court to intervene and dismiss the NAACP's Clean Air Act citizen lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI Corp., marking the first time the United States has moved to dismiss a citizen enforcement suit against a private defendant under the law. The DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division argued that xAI's unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi—powering its Colossus 2 data center near majority-Black neighborhoods—are critical to military AI operations and national security. Environmental law experts and the NAACP's legal team called the intervention unprecedented and warned it would eliminate communities' ability to seek environmental accountability through citizen suits.