Supreme Court gives SEC a win over Elon Musk

• The Supreme Court rejected Elon Musk’s bid to get rid of his “Twitter sitter.”
• He has to get legal approval for any X posts about Tesla as part of an SEC agreement.
• Musk argued that it limited his free speech, but the court shot him down.

The Supreme Court isn’t going to step in to help Elon Musk get rid of his “Twitter sitter.”

The court on Monday rejected an appeal by the billionaire Tesla CEO over a previous settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission which requires Musk to get legal approval for any posts he makes on X about Tesla.

Musk settled with the SEC in 2018 after he tweeted that he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private in a deal that never came to pass.

He filed a petition with the Supreme Court to undo the settlement in December, arguing it limited his free speech.

“It restricts Mr. Musk’s speech even when truthful and accurate,” Musk’s lawyers argued. “And it chills Mr. Musk’s speech through the never-ending threat of contempt, fines, or even imprisonment for otherwise protected speech if not pre-approved to the SEC’s or a court’s satisfaction.”

In an earlier filing, Musk quoted Eminem lyrics while challenging the settlement.

The Supreme Court declined to take up the case; the justices didn’t list why they wouldn’t hear Musk’s challenge.

Business Insider has reached out to X and Tesla for comment.

The Tesla boss — who also runs SpaceX and X — has been no stranger to feuds with government officials.

He’s raged against the SEC, called Joe Biden a “damp sock puppet in human form,” and picked a fight this year with one of Brazil’s top judges.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the SEC was opening up a new line of investigation against Musk, probing Tesla’s claims about its self-driving tech.

That tech has also come under fire from federal regulators, who said last week they’d linked Tesla’s Autopilot feature to hundreds of crashes.