Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX, alleges “invasion” of land on US/Mexico border

Lawsuit: SpaceX took over "pristine" land CAH bought to stop Trump border wall.

Cards Against Humanity sued SpaceX yesterday, alleging that Elon Musk's firm illegally took over a plot of land on the US/Mexico border that the party-game company bought in 2017 in an attempt to stymie then-President Trump's attempt to build a wall.

"As part of CAH's 2017 holiday campaign, while Donald Trump was President, CAH created a supporter-funded campaign to take a stand against the building of a Border Wall," said the lawsuit filed in Cameron County District Court in Texas. Cards Against Humanity says it received $15 donations from 150,000 people and used part of that money to buy "a plot of vacant land in Cameron County based upon CAH's promise to 'make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall.'"

Cards Against Humanity says it mowed the land "and maintained it in its natural state, marking the edge of the lot with a fence and a 'No Trespassing' sign." But instead of Trump taking over the land, Cards Against Humanity says the parcel was "interfered with and invaded" by Musk's space company. The lawsuit includes pictures that, according to Cards Against Humanity, show the land when it was first purchased and after SpaceX construction equipment and materials were placed on the land.

This picture was taken in 2017, according to Cards Against Humanity:

Cards Against Humanity says this picture of SpaceX equipment and materials on the same land was taken in 2024:

The lawsuit seeks up to $15 million to cover "the cost to restore and repair the Property, the diminution in the Property's fair market value, the reasonable value of SpaceX's use of the Property, the loss of goodwill, damages to CAH's reputation, and other pecuniary loss and actual damages suffered by CAH." The suit also seeks punitive damages.

Lawsuit: SpaceX “never asked for permission”

The lawsuit said that SpaceX "acquired many of the vacant lots along the road on which the Property is situated," and started using the Cards Against Humanity property as its own:

SpaceX and/or its contractors entered the Property and, after erecting posts to mark the property line, proceeded to ignore any distinction based upon property ownership. The site was cleared of vegetation, and the soil was compacted with gravel or other substance to allow SpaceX and its contractors to run and park its vehicles all over the Property. Generators were brought in to run equipment and lights while work was being performed before and after daylight. An enormous mound of gravel was unloaded onto the Property; the gravel is being stored and used for the construction of buildings by SpaceX's contractors along the road.

Large pieces of construction equipment and numerous construction-related vehicles are utilized and stored on the Property continuously. And, of course, workers are present performing construction work and staging materials and vehicles for work to be performed on other tracts. In short, SpaceX has treated the Property as its own for at least six (6) months without regard for CAH's property rights nor the safety of anyone entering what has become a worksite that is presumably governed by OSHA safety requirements.

The lawsuit said that "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," and "never reached out to CAH to explain or apologize for the damage caused to the Property and CAH's ownership interest therein."

We contacted SpaceX about the lawsuit and will update this article if it provides a response.

Cards Against Humanity: “Go f**k yourself, Elon Musk”

Cards Against Humanity also set up a website to publicize its lawsuit. "We have terrible news," the website says. "Seven years ago, 150,000 people paid us $15 to protect a pristine parcel of land on the US-Mexico border from racist billionaire Donald Trump's very stupid wall. Unfortunately, an even richer, more racist billionaire—Elon Musk—snuck up on us from behind and completely fucked that land with gravel, tractors, and space garbage."

The website claims that SpaceX made a "lowball offer" to buy the land after Cards Against Humanity complained:

How did this happen? Elon Musk's SpaceX was building some space thing nearby, and he figured he could just dump his shit all over our gorgeous plot of land without asking. After we caught him, SpaceX gave us a 12-hour ultimatum to accept a lowball offer for less than half our land's value. We said, "Go fuck yourself, Elon Musk. We'll see you in court."

Cards Against Humanity said it filed the lawsuit in part to protect its "longstanding reputation as a company that makes outrageous promises and actually keeps them." The lawsuit claims that the incident "has already damaged the reputation of CAH with its supporters for allowing a billionaire such as Musk to essentially steal the Property from CAH without remorse or even explanation."

Here are three more pictures of the land from Cards Against Humanity's lawsuit:

CAH will give backers up to $100 if it wins

Cards Against Humanity said it will give up to $100 back to each supporter if it wins.

"If we win, we'll equally split the lawsuit's net proceeds among all 150,000 of our original subscribers, up to $100 each," the company said. "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."

Cards Against Humanity's problem with SpaceX is also part of a Reuters investigation into SpaceX activities in Texas, which was published today. The Cards Against Humanity problem is mentioned near the end of the lengthy Reuters article, which says that a neighbor was the first to notice the alleged land takeover:

Neighbors of Starbase continue to be perplexed by some of SpaceX's activities. Last year, a homeowner in the area, Keith Reynolds, noticed that SpaceX builders had cleared a parcel and were storing construction materials there. The parcel belonged to Cards Against Humanity, a card game company that sometimes engages in progressive political activism and bought land there to thwart a border wall with Mexico.

Reynolds said he called SpaceX to complain, but got no response. He also phoned an executive at Cards Against Humanity to inform them.

A SpaceX real estate analyst subsequently contacted that Cards Against Humanity executive to ask if it wanted to sell the property, according to Reuters. "The executive ignored the offer," Reuters wrote.