The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the NAACP against Elon Musk\u2019s xAI plants in Memphis and Mississippi, claiming they are critical to the country\u2019s defense efforts.<\/p>\n
The feds filed a motion in U.S. District Court in the Northern district of Mississippi this week to intervene in the case and request its dismissal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
xAI has two facilities in South Memphis<\/a> and one in Northern Mississippi that residents and the NAACP claim are violating state and federal law by operating without required permits and exceeding air pollution limits. The lawsuit seeks to stop the facilities from operating and would force xAI to pay civil penalties of nearly $124,500 a day for Clean Air Act violations.<\/p>\n The federal filing made Monday claims the lawsuit filed by the NAACP and NAACP Mississippi State Conference \u201cthreatens\u201d America\u2019s national, economic and energy security by taking action to shut down the power supply for \u201cartificial-intelligence innovation\u201d that supports the nation\u2019s military operations.<\/p>\n It contends the power to enforce federal law lies with the executive branch and that the Clean Air Act gives the federal government \u201cprimacy\u201d over citizen groups in enforcing the law.<\/p>\n State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, criticized the federal intervention Wednesday, saying the Department of Justice\u2019s \u201cinterference\u201d in the civil lawsuit is \u201canother example of how the Trump administration has weaponized our government, which we fund with our tax dollars, against us.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearson, a congressional candidate in Tennessee\u2019s 9th District, accused the federal government of trying to protect Musk, the world\u2019s first trillionaire, \u201cso he can make more money.\u201d In doing so, the federal government is removing recourse for people seeking protection from air pollution, wasted drinking water and higher energy bills, he said.<\/p>\n The NAACP lawsuit contends the use of gas-fired turbines to power data centers supporting the Grok artificial- intelligence platform by xAI and MZX Tech LLC violated federal law by operating without environmental permits. According to the federal filing, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality determined that the state wasn\u2019t required to obtain permits for the turbines to operate.<\/p>\n \u201cGrok\u2019s continued operation and availability \u2018is a matter of paramount national security,\u2019\u201d the filing says, and claims it is \u201cone of only four proprietary state-of-the-art\u201d AI models capable of supporting \u201cnational security applications\u201d and \u201cone of just three\u201d set up to support \u201cmission-critical operations across secret and top-secret classified networks.\u201d<\/p>\n The filing claims Grok enabled U.S. forces to hit 2,000 targets in the military strike against Iran that started in February.<\/p>\n The feds\u2019 move to get involved in the lawsuit comes as residents across Tennessee mobilize against data centers<\/a>, including one proposed near the Nashville zoo and one in the Fisk University neighborhood.<\/p>\n