In the legal battle between the NAACP and Elon Musk over gas turbines powering Musk’s AI data centers — and polluting the air in greater Memphis — the billionaire industrialist has a new ally: the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. 

In an unprecedented move, the DOJ has asked a federal judge to throw out the NAACP’s lawsuit against xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, over Clean Air Act violations in Southaven, Mississippi. It argues that the federal government alone should have the power to decide if and when federal laws are enforced. 

LEARN MORE: Elon Musk Expands AI Plant Accused of Polluting Black Areas

The Justice Department further argues that Grok — the xAI chatbot powered in part by the turbines in question — is vital to national security.

Black Communities Harmed

The NAACP sued Musk’s company for using 59 natural gas turbines without a permit in Southaven, which is just across the state line from Memphis. The turbines help power xAI’s Memphis supercomputers, which run Grok. 

Both Southaven and Boxtown, the Memphis neighborhood that sits alongside the Grok facility, are predominantly Black communities. Boxtown in particular was founded by freedmen in 1863 following the Emancipation Proclamation. 

The NAACP, along with the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, calls the DOJ response deeply troubling.  

“In my experience, I have never known the government to intervene on behalf of the defendant to argue that enforcement shouldn’t happen at all,” Laura Thoms of Earthjustice told Mother Jones. Thoms formerly worked for the Department of Justice.

Chronic Air Problems

The greater Memphis area has long had significant air quality problems. In its annual rankings, the American Lung Association gave the surrounding counties of the city failing grades for smog. The turbines in Southaven, meanwhile, can produce up to 5,300 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide annually, ranking the power plant among the leading emitters of the pollutant in the entire country. 

The Trump administration’s official stance, as represented by the Justice Department filings, is that the pollution that violates the Clean Air Act should be allowed to continue, essentially because they want it to. 

“The NAACP may not pursue this Clean Air Act enforcement action over the United States’ objection,” the DOJ wrote in its request for dismissal of the case. 

National Security

By pursuing the lawsuit, it states, “the NAACP threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.” 

The Trump Administration used a specialized version of Grok during the Iran War. 

In a sworn affidavit, Cameron Stanley, the Defense Department’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, wrote that the chatbot “enabled U.S. forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours” during the war.

The judge overseeing the lawsuit against xAI has yet to respond to the DOJ request, but the NAACP is confident the case will move ahead.

“Laws like the Clean Air Act are a bedrock insurance policy for communities to hold polluters accountable for decisions that cause them harm,” Abre’ Conner, the NAACP’s director of environmental and climate justice, said in a press release. “This should not be up for debate, and the NAACP will continue to stand up for democracy and against federal bullying and authoritarianism.” 

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