Tesla has won a major legal break after a California judge ruled that more than 6,000 Black employees at the company's main assembly plant cannot move forward with a racial harassment lawsuit as a group.
The decision changes the path of a case that has been moving through the courts since 2017 and comes as the electric carmaker faces growing scrutiny over workplace treatment.
According to USA Today, California Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon made the ruling after the workers' lawyers were unable to find 200 employees willing to testify ahead of a scheduled 2026 trial.
The plan had been to randomly select those workers as a sample to help show whether their experiences represented conditions across the plant.
But because so many people declined, the judge said he could not rely on the smaller group to speak for thousands of others.
A different judge had approved the class action in 2024, believing it could be handled in a large, single trial. Judge Borkon said that no longer seemed possible. The ruling means each worker may now have to bring individual claims instead of one unified case.
Tesla did not comment on the ruling, but the company has previously said it does not tolerate harassment and has fired employees who took part in racist behavior.
🇺🇸 TESLA WINS MAJOR VICTORY IN RACIAL BIAS LAWSUIT
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 17, 2025
A California judge has shut down a proposed class action by 6,000 workers, ruling the claims can’t proceed as a group due to lack of evidence and participation.
Plaintiffs couldn’t find even 200 workers willing to testify, a… pic.twitter.com/dNPuUpNBQM
Tesla Racial Harassment Class-Action Blocked by Judge
The lawsuit was originally filed by former assembly-line worker Marcus Vaughn, who said he and other Black employees at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory faced disturbing conduct.
According to the complaint, workers were called slurs, saw racist graffiti, and even found nooses hung at their stations, Reuters reported.
Lawyer Lawrence Organ, who represents the workers, called the ruling a setback but said the fight is far from over.
He explained that many of the selected workers were low-income and could not afford to take time off to testify.
Still, he praised them for speaking up, saying, "Either together with other victims, or separately, these courageous Black workers will overcome Tesla's endless delays and continue fighting to hold the company accountable."
The class action had been scheduled for trial next April, just two months before a similar lawsuit brought by California's state civil rights agency.
Tesla is also facing a separate race discrimination case from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in federal court.
Originally published on vcpost.com
