The Justice Department will be allowed to intervene in a citizen lawsuit against xAI’s data center in Mississippi, but cannot throw the case out of court, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Lawyers for the Trump administration argued they had the right to unilaterally dismiss a lawsuit filed by the NAACP, which alleges that Elon Musk’s xAI violated the Clean Air Act and Mississippi state law by building and operating gas-fired generators without a permit to power a data center.
The Justice Department argued that the case should be dismissed for national security reasons and to align with federal policy and the public interest.
“Preserving xAI’s current data center capacity is a matter of paramount national security,” Cameron Stanley, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer at the Defense Department, said in a declaration as part of the case.
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In Monday’s order, U.S. District Court Judge Debra Brown said she did not consider the national security concerns relevant to whether the Justice Department would be allowed to dismiss the case entirely.
Brown wrote that the Justice Department does not have the authority to unilaterally dismiss the lawsuit unless the federal or state government is already prosecuting the issue itself. That is not the case with xAI.
“It is readily apparent that by enacting the citizen suit provision, Congress intended to allow
individuals to sue even when federal and state governments may, for whatever reason, decline to enforce the Clean Air Act,” Brown wrote.
In a statement, Abre’ Conner, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP, said the organization was “looking forward to continuing our fight.”
Despite denying the United States’ request to dismiss, Brown will allow the Justice Department to be part of the case going forward.
The NAACP is aiming to require that xAI operate its gas plant in compliance with the Clean Air Act and install emissions-control technology. The lawsuit also seeks to penalize the company up to $124,426 per day, per violation. The Justice Department and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves have said those penalties threaten the operation of xAI’s data center.
The judge asked lawyers for the Trump administration to explain the extent to which they will intervene by Friday.
“The Trump Administration has gone out of its way to shield Elon Musk’s company, xAI, from liability and to deny local communities their right to protect themselves against illegal pollution,” said Laura Thoms, Enforcement Director for Earthjustice, calling the Justice Department’s argument “unprecedented and alarming.”
Citizens have long been allowed to bring lawsuits over Clean Air Act violations. Those lawsuits have imposed penalties on companies including Exxon Mobil and U.S. Steel for emissions and permit violations.
The Defense Department relies on an xAI product known as the “Grok Gov Model,” Stanley said, which provides support for military operations as well as business enterprise activities. The agency used Grok to “deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets” during the U.S. campaign against Iran that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Users of the agency’s AI network consume almost 2 billion tokens — the units used to purchase AI model usage — every day, Stanley said.
In court filings, xAI lawyers said if there was a preliminary injunction in the case and the company was forced to turn off generators, Grok would “effectively cease to function.”
The Justice Department also argued that allowing the lawsuit to move forward would compromise the enforcement authority of the federal government, placing it in the hands of citizens who sue.
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