Colorado officials are suing the Trump administration to try to stop the relocation of Space Command HQ from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, AL.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, argues that President Donald Trump’s decision to move the combatant command is “unconstitutional” because it violates the state’s right to carry out elections however it wants.
Wait, what? The case builds off of Trump’s own words. When announcing the relocation in September, Trump said the decision was driven in part by Colorado’s use of mail-in voting.
“The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting, they went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections,” Trump said at the time.
The lawsuit alleges that this statement goes directly against “the foundation of our republic.”
“The Constitution does not permit the executive to punish or retaliate against states for lawfully exercising sovereign powers reserved for the states, as President Trump and the Executive Branch have unlawfully done here,” it says. “One of the core state sovereign powers is the authority to regulate elections.”
By the numbers: The state is fighting for more than just what it argues are democratic principles. The command accounts for nearly 1,400 jobs in the state, and accounts for $1B of annual economic impact, according to a report in The Colorado Sun. Industry has also put down roots around the command’s home base, and more than 110,000 people work in aerospace and defense jobs in Colorado Springs, the report says.
How we got here: The location of the command has been a political football for almost five years—with no end in sight. In January 2021, the Trump administration announced Space Command, which had been based in Colorado Springs on an interim basis after it was re-established in 2019, would be heading to Huntsville. After leaving office, Trump told an Alabama radio show that he “single-handedly” made the basing decision.
After multiple reviews, former President Joe Biden announced in July 2023 that Space Command would stay put in Colorado, where it declared full operational capability in December 2023.
That seemed to be the end of it—until Trump returned to the White House. Last month, he made good on promises to reverse Biden’s decision, saying that Space Command would be moving to Alabama.
What’s next: The timeline for the legal case isn’t clear, but Colorado officials have asked for a stop to any work on moving the HQ while it’s considered.
