Starbase, the company town spun out of Elon Musk’s SpaceX operations in South Texas, has hauled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton back into court, again asking a judge to block the release of records the city wants to keep under wraps. The latest lawsuit, filed this month in Travis County, is the newest chapter in a months-long legal tug-of-war over which communications tied to the high-profile launch site have to be made public.
Since its May incorporation, the tiny city has filed at least four lawsuits against Paxton’s office over open-records rulings that ordered information released. Three of the recent Travis County cases grew out of requests by KVEO reporter Dave Hendricks, who sought invoices and emails involving Starbase’s outside counsel and SpaceX staff, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Starbase’s attorneys argue that those invoices and messages are shielded by attorney-client privilege, trade-secret protections, or concerns that disclosure could reveal vulnerabilities tied to “critical infrastructure.” Paxton’s office has signed off on some redactions while ordering other material released, and Starbase is asking judges to wipe out those rulings.
The courtroom skirmishes are unfolding as state officials last month finally produced nearly 1,400 heavily blacked-out pages of emails between Gov. Greg Abbott and Elon Musk after a drawn-out records fight, a release many reporters said revealed almost nothing, even after all the ink. ProPublica documented both the document dump and the legal arguments the state used to justify the extensive redactions…