McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Monday refused to block the Trump administration from giving SpaceX more than 700 acres (280 hectares) of wildlife refuge as part of a land swap in Texas, while environmental groups vowed to continue their legal challenge.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. declined the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the parcel exchange, saying they failed to prove it would worsen ecological risks to a Gulf Coast region already transformed by billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket operations.
In June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved moving forward with the deal with SpaceX, which would surrender 683 acres (276 hectares) the company owns in exchange for the federal land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The 103,000-acre (41,700-hectare) refuge spans four counties along the Texas border and is home to animal habitats and historical landmarks.
Maps show the land SpaceX would acquire would be closer to the company's launchpad near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The swap amounts to a gift of public lands to SpaceX, “clearing the way for bulldozers to tear into this wildlife refuge as soon as next week and turn a public treasure into a private payday,” said Laiken Jordahl, a spokesperson with the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit alongside other opponents including tribal groups. Jordahl said Monday that the litigation will continue even as the exchange goes forward.
“This court order is not the final word. These lands hold incredible spiritual, historical and conservation value for the people and wildlife of South Texas. We won’t stop fighting to keep this irreplaceable public wildlife refuge safe from SpaceX bulldozers,” Jordahl said in a statement.
The lawsuit asks the federal court to halt the exchange, which has worried SpaceX opponents in the area who have long criticized the company's expanding footprint over lost access to beaches and concerns over exploding rockets.
The Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday’s decision. Previously, a spokesperson had said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The agency issued a final environmental assessment report in June that determined the exchange would cause no significant impact to the area. The report said the federal government believed the acquisition would represent a “net conservation benefit” and provide “substantial long-term conservation value and improving landscape-scale habitat connectivity across refuges in South Texas.”
The judge said that the plaintiffs offered “relatively weak” evidence of environmental harm.
“While they rightfully argue that the preservation of wildlife and historical lands furthers the public interest, they present no evidence demonstrating that the Property will suffer aesthetic, environmental, cultural, or historical degradation during the pendency of this lawsuit,” Rodriguez wrote in his ruling.
In addition, the judge said a preliminary injunction would result in modifications to SpaceX’s development plans, “placing additional hardship on the company’s ability to meet milestones and contractual obligations.”
SpaceX did not return an email seeking comment on the judge's ruling.
The space exploration company first broke ground in Texas more than a decade ago and has expanded rapidly, so much that SpaceX employees last year voted to incorporate their own local government called Starbase.
FILE - The SpaceX logo is displayed on a building, May 26, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
FILE - SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lifts off for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A long-running legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map took another turn Monday when a federal appeals panel ruled in favor of new districts backed by President Donald Trump, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked those districts from being used in the November election.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Missouri should use the new Republican-drawn U.S. House districts in the November election, just as the state did in its August primary. To revert to its prior districts for the general election would violate the U.S. Constitution, the appeals judges said.
The appeals panel directed a lower court judge to issue a permanent injunction against using anything other than the map favored by Trump. But the ruling has no immediate impact. That’s because the panel also ordered the judge to delay the effect of the order for one week to allow time for an appeal.
Opponents of the new map said Monday that they will file an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court already has twice sided against the Trump-backed map and had blocked enforcement of a lower court order favoring the map pending a potential appeal and eventual decision by the high court.
Missouri currently is set to run its November election with the same congressional districts it used in 2024 and 2022, following prior decisions by both the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Local elections officials already have sent absentee ballots to overseas citizens and military voters using those districts. State law requires absentee ballots to be available to all other voters by Tuesday. Once voters have cast a ballot, they cannot be given another one — even if the district boundaries have changed.
To try to change districts at this late date would be “practically impossible” and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities told appeals judges in a legal filing.
But an attorney representing Republicans who sued — including U.S. Rep. Bob Onder and state Sen. Rick Brattin, a congressional candidate — suggested during arguments last Thursday that there still is time to revert to the Trump-backed map.
The appeals panel agreed, pointing to other cases in which courts have ordered changes after absentee ballots already had been distributed to overseas citizens and military voters.
“The Constitution does not permit Missouri to use a different congressional district map in the November 2026 general election than it used in the August 2026 primary election,” the appeals panel wrote in its decision.
The panel consists of Judge James Loken, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, and two appointees of Trump — Judges David Stras and Justin Smith. Prior to his June appointment, Smith was an attorney who represented Trump as he unsuccessfully appealed a $5 million jury verdict in a lawsuit filed by the writer E. Jean Carroll to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The group People Not Politicians, which spearheaded a referendum petition to put the new map to a statewide vote on the November ballot, said it will appeal the latest decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
“Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted. Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement. “Officials should stop wasting taxpayers’ money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections.”
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins speaks to members of the press after his contempt hearing at the Missouri Supreme Court in Jefferson City, Mo., Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (Liz Rymarev/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool)
