A unanimous Texas Supreme Court ruling let SpaceX keep closing Boca Chica Beach during launches by dismissing environmental groups’ challenge with prejudice, barring them from refiling.
Rebeca Huddle’s opinion said the groups lacked standing because the 2009 beach-access amendment does not give private parties a right to sue to enforce those protections.
The case, filed in 2021 by Save RGV and later joined by the Sierra Club and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, argued closures of Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 violated Texans’ constitutional beach-access rights.
That challenge also sought to void House Bill 2623, the 2013 law that lets SpaceX temporarily shut the beach for safety during spaceflight activities and helped secure FAA approval for the launch site.
Lawyer Marisa Perales said the decision leaves the public without a remedy and effectively turns Boca Chica Beach into SpaceX’s blast zone despite the 2009 amendment winning 77% voter support.
SpaceX won on beach access, but can a separate land-swap lawsuit still ground its Starbase expansion?
With citizens barred from suing, is Texas’s constitutional right to beach access now unenforceable?
SpaceX’s Starbase Expansion Shuts Out Public: Texas Supreme Court Upholds Beach Closures Despite 77% Voter Support for Open Access
Overview
On June 19, 2026, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that SpaceX can continue closing Boca Chica Beach for rocket launches, upholding a 2013 state law. This decision, rooted in the issue of 'standing,' means that while the 2009 Open Beaches Amendment guarantees public beach access, it does not allow individuals or groups to sue for enforcement. As a result, environmental and public access advocates lost a key legal tool to challenge SpaceX’s frequent closures, intensifying the ongoing conflict over public access and industrial expansion along the Texas coast.