Elon Musk’s SpaceX must turn over hiring records sought by the US Justice Department as part of its probe into whether the company discriminates against job seekers based on their citizenship status, a federal judge ruled.
The department demanded the records in May 2020 after opening several investigations into the company’s hiring practices, including one involving a man who alleged that the company rejected him because he wasn’t a US citizen.
Tesla fought the request, arguing in court papers that the subpoena was overly broad and amounted to a fishing expedition. But in March, a federal magistrate judge rejected the company’s arguments, concluding the subpoena was “relevant and enforceable” and didn’t represent an “undue burden” on the company.
US District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles adopted the magistrate’s ruling on Wednesday and gave the company 21 days to comply with the subpoena.
The Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights section asked for a year’s worth of hiring records from the company, including the paperwork that non-citizen employees fill out to verify their eligibility to work in the U.S.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours.
The judge’s order was reported earlier by CNBC. The case is United States of America v. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., 2:21-mc-00043, U.S. District Court, Central District of California – Bloomberg