CHICAGO — Cards Against Humanity is suing SpaceX for $15 million, claiming the Elon Musk-owned company trespassed on and damaged its land along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in the district court of Cameron County, Texas, records show.
The Chicago-based Cards Against Humanity bought the land in August 2017. The “pristine parcel of land” was meant to block then-President Donald Trump’s plans to build a border wall, officials said. The company planned to keep the land undeveloped and fight any attempts to use eminent domain to gain control of it, officials said.
The company bought the property after 150,000 followers of the adult card game pitched in $15 each into the initiative “Cards Against Humanity Saves America.”
But now, the company claims Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — an American spacecraft manufacturer, satellite communications company and launch service provider — is illegally using that land for its own purposes. SpaceX has used Cards Against Humanity’s plot to store construction materials and park cars, ruining the vegetation on the site, company officials said in their suit.
SpaceX has building permits for neighboring lots and had construction projects next door, Cards Against Humanity told Block Club.
In the suit, the company says the land was “a pristine vacant property untouched by development nor impacted in any way to affect its original natural condition.”
“Since purchasing the Property, [Cards Against Humanity] mowed it and maintained it in its natural state, marking the edge of the lot with a fence and a ‘No Trespassing’ sign,” the lawsuit reads. “But in the ensuing years, SpaceX acquired many of the vacant lots along the road on which the Property is situated, and, shortly thereafter, began constructing large modern-looking buildings, changing the entire dynamic of the area.”
It’s unclear when SpaceX began construction on the land, but Cards Against Humanity said SpaceX has been using the property as its own for at least six months, according to the lawsuit.
The company was notified in October 2023 that SpaceX was using the property, a spokesperson told Block Club.
Nearby homeowner Keith Reynolds noticed SpaceX had cleared a parcel belonging to Cards Against Humanity and saw SpaceX was storing construction materials on the land, according to a Reuters report published Friday.
“Reynolds said he called SpaceX to complain, but got no response. He also phoned an executive at Cards Against Humanity to inform them,” according to the report by Marisa Taylor. “The executive, who asked not to be identified by name, told Reuters that Denise Marrufo, a SpaceX real estate analyst, called afterward, asking if the company wanted to sell the property.”
Since then, the site has been “cleared of vegetation,” and soil has been compacted with gravel or another substance so SpaceX and its contractors are able to run and park vehicles on the property, Cards Against Humanity claims. Generators, lights and other construction-related equipment has also been utilized and stored on the land, according to the lawsuit.
Cards Against Humanity doesn’t own any of the vehicle or equipment pictured in the image below, according to the lawsuit. The company has been displaced from and deprived of its property without warning from SpaceX, officials said.
“SpaceX has never asked for permission to use the Property, much less for the egregious appropriation of the Property for its own profit-making purposes,” the lawsuit reads.
SpaceX also hasn’t reached out to the game company, officials said.
“We’re still waiting for them to ask for permission, apologize or even acknowledge the situation,” a Cards Against Humanity spokesperson told Block Club. “We haven’t heard from them since the filing. They only contacted us to give us a 12-hour ultimatum to sell the property for a lowball price — after they dumped their s*it on it.”
The damage extends beyond the land itself, Cards Against Humanity said.
SpaceX has tarnished the company’s ownership of the land and its reputation among supporters, thousands of whom contributed financially to the game company’s work, the lawsuit claims.
“Allowing Musk’s company to abuse the Property that [Cards Against Humanity’s] supporters contributed money to purchase for the sole purpose of stopping such behavior is totally contrary to both the reason for the contribution and the tenets on which [Cards Against Humanity] is based,” according to the lawsuit. “Whether one agrees with [Cards Against Humanity’s] political positions or not, the support generated by its business model is real and valuable — and greatly damaged by these acts.”
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to Block Club’s request for comment.
Should Cards Against Humanity win their suit, the company plans on sharing the net proceeds to supporters who financially contributed to the original campaign to buy the plot. Those 150,000 people will each get $100, according to an online statement.
“While this isn’t enough to compensate our subscribers for the anguish they’ve suffered witnessing Elon Musk defile their once-verdant land — where wild horses galloped freely in the Texas moonlight — we think it’s a pretty good start,” the statement reads. “150,000 people gave us their hard-earned money, and in exchange, we vowed to protect this land from racist billionaires and their dumb vanity projects.”
Cards Against Humanity is seeking monetary relief greater than $250,000 and up to $15 million, according to the lawsuit.
This will help restore and repair the property and account for the property’s diminished value, the value of SpaceX’s use of the land, damage caused to Cards Against Humanity’s reputation, among other losses, according to the lawsuit.
“We hope Elon Musk gets to experience the consequences of his actions,” the Cards Against Humanity spokesperson told Block Club.
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