{"id":343230,"date":"2026-06-19T18:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343230\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T18:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:59:09","slug":"texas-supreme-court-sides-with-spacex-over-public-beach-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343230\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Supreme Court sides with SpaceX over public beach access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SpaceX-starship.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">SpaceX&#8217;s Starship 24 test spaceship and Super Heavy Booster 7 at the company&#8217;s Starbase launch tower in Texas ahead of a launch wet dress rehearsal. (Image: SpaceX) <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that environmental groups cannot sue to preserve access to public access to a beach that&#8217;s been closed during rocket launches.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">In a unanimous decision, the court sided with SpaceX and the attorney general, saying the lower court&#8217;s dismissal of the case was correct.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">SaveRGV sued the Texas General Land Office, Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and Cameron County in 2021 arguing that the closure of State Highway 4 and Boca Chica Beach during SpaceX launches interfered with beach access rights of its members. The lawsuit was eventually taken up by the attorney general&#8217;s office, while the Sierra Club and Carrizo\/Comecrudo Nation of Texas joined SaveRGV.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The groups argued that the beach closure violated the Texas Constitution. The constitution was amended in 2009 to guarantee public access and use of state beaches.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">In the opinion, Justice Rebeca Huddle wrote that the Constitutional amendment &#8220;constitutionalized the public\u2019s right to beach access, but it did not expand or confer on private citizens a right of enforcement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> Other challenges to SpaceX in Texas <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The challenge to open beach access isn&#8217;t the only challenge to SpaceX&#8217;s operation on Boca Chica Beach.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Last week, SaveRGV, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Carrizo\/Comecrudo tribe and South Texas Environmental Justice Network filed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/news\/lawsuit-seeks-stop-spacex-land-exchange-near-texas-wildlife-refuge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a federal lawsuit challenging a land exchange between SpaceX and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The exchange would give SpaceX around 700 acres of national wildlife refuge land in exchange for 683 acres of private land along Boca Chica Beach and near Laguna Heights.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">FWS said the exhange allows them to divest in lands that would be impacted by SpaceX&#8217;s operation for land that is desirable for habitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this article comes from an opinion filed by the Texas Supreme Court on June 19, 2026, and previous FOX Local reporting.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/environment\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Environment<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/organizations\/spacex\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article SpaceX&#8217;s Starship 24 test spaceship and Super Heavy Booster 7 at the company&#8217;s Starbase launch tower in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2327,223,22121,2223,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":["post-343230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-organizations","tag-spacex","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343230","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=343230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}