Appellate court sides with environmentalists over SpaceX beach closure lawsuit

The Texas 13th District Court of Appeals has unanimously overturned a ruling of Cameron County’s 445th state District Court in a lawsuit brought by SaveRGV, the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas Inc. against Cameron County, the Texas General Land Office and intervenor Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over SpaceX-related restrictions to public beach access.

The lawsuit was filed in response to frequent closures of S.H. 4 leading to Boca Chica Beach, and the beach itself, for spaceflight operations conducted by SpaceX, the plaintiffs arguing that restricting access to the public beach is in violation of the Open Beaches Amendment of the Texas Constitution.

The appeals court’s Feb. 1 ruling overturns a July 2022 ruling by state District Judge Gloria Rincones that the plaintiffs lacked standing or jurisdiction to sue. The original lawsuit, filed by SaveRGV in October 2021, asked the court to invalidate a statute of the Texas Natural Resources Code (TNRC) approved by the Legislature in 2013 that allows public beaches to be closed for space operations — a statute created specifically to accommodate SpaceX.

SaveRGV argued that the provisions conflict with the Texas Constitution, which the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter noted in a statement was amended by a 77% majority of state voters in 2009, to guarantee the right to free and unrestricted access to public beaches. The appeals court ruled that the appellants in the case (SaveRGV etc.) did have standing to sue, and that “government immunity is waived in cases challenging the constitutionality of a statute, such as here. We reverse and remand.”

The appeals ruling noted that, according to SaveRGV’s initial petition, the appellees (Cameron County etc.) “have allowed the closure of Boca Chica Beach … for up to 450 hours per year to allow (SpaceX) to conduct activities related to space flight launches.”

The frequent closures prompted SaveRGV to seek a declaratory judgment from the trial court that the TNRC statute is unconstitutional because it violates the Open Beaches Amendment, and further, that a TNRC statute allowing the Texas land commissioner to make rules allowing beach closures for space flight activities also violates the Open Beaches Amendment, noted the appeals court.

Victoria Guerra of SaveRGV said Texans who voted for the Open Beaches Act in 2009 “deserve to have this issue fully litigated.”

“The court of appeals decision should stand and Cameron County and the other state of Texas defendants should stop wasting taxpayers’ resources on further appeal,” she said. “Boca Chica belongs to the people and to the wildlife which depends on that unique habitat to survive.”

Cameron County, the GLO and Paxton are expected to appeal the case to the Texas Supreme Court, however, in which case SaveRGV will “continue to fight for the rights granted to them in the Texas Constitution,” Sierra Club said.