A group of federal appeals court judges in New Orleans is deciding whether a 2018 Twitter post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk unlawfully threatened Tesla employees with the loss of stock options if they decided to be represented by a union.
The National Labor Relations Board said it was an illegal threat. Three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld that decision, as well as a related NLRB order that Tesla rehire a fired employee, with back pay.
But the full 5th Circuit later threw out that decision and voted to hear the matter again, resulting in a hearing Thursday before a panel of 17 judges. Attorneys for Tesla, the NLRB and the union grappled with questions including whether the post counted as a threat to workers because it appeared in a public discussion on his personal account and not in the workplace or on a Tesla forum.
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