Elon Musk’s X has updated its terms of service to direct any disputes by users of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to a federal court in Texas whose judges frequently hand out victories to conservative litigants in political cases.
The new terms of service that go into effect on November 15 specify that any lawsuit against X by users must be filed exclusively in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas or in the state courts of from Tarrant, Texas.
It is common for companies to include jurisdiction clauses in their terms of service that specify which forum will hear disputes brought against them. But the North Texas District election stands out because X is not located in the district.
Having moved from San Francisco, X is based in Bastrop, Texas, near Austin, whose federal courthouse is in the Western District of Texas. That district has far fewer Republican-appointed judges than the Northern District, which has become a favorite destination for conservative activists and business groups to file lawsuits seeking to block parts of Joe Biden’s agenda, a tactic Democratic lawmakers say It smells like “judge shopping.” .
“It’s hard to imagine that this isn’t related to this new language,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University.
X did not respond to a request for comment. Musk, the richest man in the world, has increasingly embraced conservative causes and has become an important financial supporter of Donald Trump in his campaign to win the presidential election on November 5.
The Northern District of Texas is already home to two lawsuits X has filed after several brands pulled ads from Musk’s platform, including one against the liberal watchdog group Media Matters after it published a report saying ads had appeared along with publications that supported Nazism.
X, which billionaire Musk bought in 2022, sued Media Matters last year, alleging that the group defamed the platform. The lawsuit will go to trial in Fort Worth, Texas, next year. Media Matters has called the lawsuit baseless.
X also filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing several advertisers of conspiring to conduct a boycott, resulting in lost revenue. Both of X’s lawsuits were initially assigned to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a Fort Worth judge who once declared the Obamacare health insurance law unconstitutional in a ruling that was later overturned. Since then, he has blocked the Biden administration’s policies on gun control and LGBTQ+ rights.
The judge, appointed by George W. Bush, the former Republican president, recused himself from X’s antitrust case in August after National Public Radio reported that financial disclosure reports showed that O’Connor had owned stock in another Musk, Tesla. But the judge refused to recuse himself from the Media Matters case.
O’Connor is one of two active federal court judges in Fort Worth. The other is Mark Pittman, a Trump appointee.
