Siding with SpaceX and the attorney general\u2019s office, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that environmental groups did not have a right to sue to preserve public access to a beach that has been closed during rocket launches.<\/p>\n
The unanimous ruling<\/a> said a trial judge properly dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the groups could not refile it with changes.<\/p>\n The dispute began in 2021 when then environmental group SaveRGV sued the Texas General Land Office, Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and Cameron County, arguing Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 \u2014 the only access road \u2014 had been improperly closed for SpaceX launches. <\/p>\n SaveRGV said the closures violate the Texas Constitution, which was amended in 2009 to guarantee public access to, and use of, state beaches. The amendment was approved with support from 77% of Texans.<\/p>\n The lawsuit, later joined by the Sierra Club and the Carrizo\/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, sought to void a 2013 state law that authorized SpaceX to close Boca Chica Beach as a safety precaution during space flights. <\/p>\n The attorney general\u2019s office intervened to defend the law. <\/p>\n In Friday\u2019s opinion, written by Justice Rebeca Huddle, the Supreme Court said the 2009 constitutional amendment expressly stated that there is no private right to sue to enforce beach access. <\/p>\n \u201cThe plaintiffs are private parties \u2014 organizations whose beachgoing members claim the temporary closures of Boca Chica Beach conflict with their constitutional right to access and use the beach,\u201d Huddle wrote. <\/p>\n Disclosure: Texas General Land Office has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Siding with SpaceX and the attorney general\u2019s office, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that environmental groups…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[45717,4556,32482,27,4481,29,28,3298,6588],"class_list":["post-343098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-cameron-county","tag-dawn-buckingham","tag-sierra-club","tag-texas","tag-texas-constitution","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-supreme-court","tag-well-c-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}