The legal fight that sent the world’s richest man into a simmering social media tantrum against Delaware made its way in front of the state’s Supreme Court on Oct. 15.
Attorneys representing Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk argued the Supreme Court should overturn a 2023 Chancery Court ruling that rescinded Musk's $50 billion pay package after a judge ruled the pay plan derived from a process that didn't fully inform shareholders and was shaped by board members beholden to Musk.
The ruling sent Musk into a campaign to relocate the legal home of his own companies from Delaware and encourage other companies to do the same by verbally lashing the state's famed business court online. It's a challenge that has in subsequent years seen only a handful of billion-dollar companies decamp from Delaware, but more prominently shaped public discourse and state law regarding the state's lucrative status as the top place to domicile a business.
It's under this backdrop that a panel of five state Supreme Court justices heard arguments in front of an uncharacteristically large crowd of dozens in a Dover courtroom. Musk was not in attendance.
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