Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024.
Rachel Wisniewski | Reuters
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Friday sent back to state court a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and his political action committee seeking to halt their $1 million daily giveaway to voters in the swing state.
The order returning the case to state court in Philadelphia came a day after the suit by the city’s District Attorney Larry Krasner was removed to federal court at the request of the Tesla CEO Musk and his America PAC.
Krasner’s lawsuit accuses Musk and the PAC of running an illegal lottery by offering a random cash prize to registered voters in Pennsylvania.
Friday’s ruling sets the stage for Krasner to potentially obtain a quick order in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas blocking America PAC from awarding any more $1 million prizes to registered voters in the state.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert, in ruling remanding the case to the Court of Common Pleas, brushed aside arguments by Musk’s lawyers that the lawsuit should be handled in Philadelphia federal court because the suit references the upcoming federal presidential election.
“But federal question jurisdiction does not turn on a plaintiff’s motivations in filing suit; it turns on whether the legal issues arising from the claims originate in federal or state law,” Pappert wrote.
The judge said Musk and the PAC had not identified “any question of federal law” that must be resolved in the DA’s favor “in order to prove either state-law claim.
Krasner’s office in a statement said, “This ruling is consistent with the argument of the District Attorney that America PAC’s and Mr. Musk’s eleventh hour effort to take the case away from state court in Philadelphia was contrary to law.”
John Summers, an attorney representing Krasner’s office in the case, said, “We await the state court’s scheduling of the hearing” to consider an emergency request to halt the $1 million lottery.
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