Federal Judge Indicates Likely Rejection of Tesla Bid

A federal judge in California on Thursday appeared poised to reject Tesla’s bid to toss out a U.S. agency’s lawsuit accusing the electric carmaker of tolerating rampant harassment of Black workers at its Fremont, California assembly plant.

Judge Disagrees with Tesla’s Claims During Hearing:

During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco repeatedly disagreed with Tesla’s lawyers’ claims that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) failed to include any facts in its lawsuit backing up its claim of pervasive unlawful race bias.

The EEOC, in a 10-page lawsuit filed last year, said that from 2015 to the present, Black workers at the Tesla plant have routinely been subjected to racist slurs and graffiti, including swastikas and nooses, and Tesla has failed to investigate complaints.

Tesla Faces Additional Legal Challenges:

Tesla, whose CEO is billionaire Elon Musk, faces similar claims in a separate lawsuit by a California civil rights agency and a class action on behalf of 6,000 Black workers. The company has denied wrongdoing in all three cases.

During the hearing, Raymond Cardozo, a lawyer for Tesla, argued that the EEOC had not met the requirement of showing that its claims were “plausible” and could proceed.

Judge Corley cited a paragraph in the lawsuit that outlined instances of racism, indicating that Tesla will have the opportunity to obtain more information during the discovery process leading up to a trial.

Potential Outcome and Further Proceedings:

Corley did not specify when she would issue a ruling but seemed skeptical of Tesla’s bid to pause the case pending the outcome of other related lawsuits. The EEOC’s lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for Black workers and an order requiring Tesla to overhaul its policies prohibiting discrimination and retaliation.