Denver — Colorado officials filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that Transfer of US Space Command The illegal drive to Alabama was President Donald Trump’s desire to punish Colorado for it Voting by mail system.
The lawsuit announced by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser asks a federal judge to block the move as unconstitutional.
Then-President Joe Biden announced in 2023 that Space Command would be falls permanently in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which served as its temporary headquarters.
Trump said in September that Colorado’s mail-in voting system “played a big role” in moving headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama.
“The problem with Colorado is they have a very corrupt voting system,” Trump said. He said previous plans to move the headquarters to Huntsville were “wrongfully hampered by the Biden administration.”
The decision capped four years of tug-of-war between the two countries and opposing administrations. This angered Democratic and Republican officials in Colorado, which has a thriving aviation industry.
“President Trump unlawfully retaliated against Colorado to punish the state for exercising its sovereign authority to regulate elections,” Colorado officials wrote in the lawsuit filed Wednesday. “The Supreme Court has long recognized that the Constitution prohibits the use of retaliation, punishment, or other coercive measure in response to the exercise of a constitutional right or power.”
Space Command’s functions include enabling satellite navigation and force communications and providing warning of missile launches.
Huntsville — nicknamed the Rocket City because of its role in building the first rockets for the U.S. space program — is home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.
About 1,400 Space Command jobs will move to Redstone Arsenal over the next five years, Alabama officials said.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement on Wednesday that his state will vigorously defend the transfer decision in court. He called the lawsuit filed in Colorado “a partisan attempt to overturn an evidence-based legal decision that has been repeatedly validated by military experts, independent reviews and congressional oversight.”
review The Department of Defense Inspector General’s findings were inconclusive and could not determine why Colorado was chosen over Alabama. Trump, a Republican with deep support in Alabama, had long been expected to return space leadership to the state.
The White House and US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.