Tesla Urges Fifth Circuit to Revive Suit Over Louisiana Direct Sales Ban 

Louisiana’s motor vehicle commission is waging an unlawful investigation into Tesla’s operations within the state as part of a conspiracy with car dealers to oust the electric carmaker, the automaker’s lawyer argued Tuesday before a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 

Tesla’s lawyer, Ari Holtzblatt of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, argued the Sherman Antitrust Act, as well as the 14^th Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses, bar the dealers’ “efforts to appropriate state power to eliminate competition” as the company urged the Fifth Circuit to revive a lawsuit against several members of the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission, the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association and a group of dealers.