US labor board wrongly ordered Tesla's Musk to delete anti-union tweet, court rules
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) - A divided U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that the National Labor Relations Board went too far by ordering Tesla CEO Elon Musk to delete a 2018 tweet stating employees of the electric vehicle maker would lose stock options if they unionized.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 9-8 vote threw out an NLRB order from 2021 that had concluded the tweet amounted to an unlawful threat after the court concluded the tweet amounted to free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
"Deleting the speech of private citizens on topics of public concern is not a remedy traditionally countenanced by American law," the court held in an unsigned opinion joined by eight of the nine judges in the majority.
That finding was enough to warrant overturning the NLRB's 2021 decision, according to those judges, who were all appointed by Republican presidents. As a result meant, it did not decide whether the tweet itself violated the National Labor Relations Act.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/us-labor-board-wrongly-ordered-tesla-s-musk-to-delete-anti-union-tweet-court-rules/ar-AA1t38Q2