Judge again denies X.AI’s attempt to block Minnesota’s AI nudification ban
After being denied a temporary restraining order, X.AI moved for a preliminary injunction, which would have blocked the law from being enforced for the duration of the X.AI’s lawsuit
AG Ellison’s Office argued against the preliminary injunction: the court sided with AG Ellison, meaning the anti-nudification law continues to be in effect
September 4, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Today, a federal court in Minnesota rejected X.AI’s second attempt to block Minnesota’s law against AI nudification. The court previously ruled on July 31 — one day before the law took effect on August 1 — that X.AI was not entitled to a temporary restraining order to block the enforcement of the law. Today the court further denied X.AI’s request for a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of the law for the duration of the lawsuit.
Because the court denied the preliminary injunction, Minnesota’s law banning the publication of AI-nudified images remains in effect.
“I am extremely proud to be defending this law, and along with it, the dignity of the people of Minnesota,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Minnesota’s landmark, overwhelmingly bipartisan and nearly unanimously approved law banning AI technology products, like X.AI’s Grok Imagine, from generating nudified and other sexual images continues to be in effect. These nudification apps have been used to generate child sexual abuse materials and harass people in the vilest ways imaginable. That repulsive behavior is not welcome in Minnesota. My Office and I will continue to vigorously defend the law and the Minnesotans it was designed to protect from X.AI’s lawsuit.”
In finding against X.AI and in favor of the State of Minnesota, the court emphasized the State’s strong public interest in this bipartisan law and the significant harms that the law is designed to prevent:
“The Court finds that the balance of harms and public interest tips steeply in favor of the State. The State has enacted, democratically and nearly unanimously, a civil statute aimed at protecting the public from the undisputed harm stemming from AI-nudification technology and the resulting proliferation of photorealistic sexualized images. It is evident, and xAI does not dispute, that the State has an interest in curbing the generation of those images.” (p. 12 of the ruling)
The court further found that X.AI’s lack of diligence in filing its lawsuit in a timely manner — it filed its lawsuit close to three months after the law was passed and signed, and just days before it was scheduled to go into effect — is another reason to deny a preliminary injunction:
“If xAI genuinely feared irreparable harm, the Court does not doubt it would have acted more quickly to file this action and move for injunctive relief. The fact that it did not do so strongly suggests a lack of irreparable harm.” (p. 8 of the ruling)
The state’s AI nudification ban was enacted on May 7, 2026, with near-unanimous support in both the House and the Senate: 197 lawmakers voted in favor of it and only 1 voted against it. On July 27, 2026, X.AI sued the state of Minnesota, challenging the state’s AI nudification ban, which was scheduled to take effect on August 1, 2026. On July 29, X.AI asked the court for a temporary restraining order halting the enforcement of the law, which the court denied on July 31. X.AI then moved for a preliminary injunction, which Attorney General Ellison opposed on August 18.
According to one report, “The AI tool Grok is estimated to have generated approximately 3 million sexualized images, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, after the launch of a new image editing feature powered by the tool on X” in just 11 days after the tool was first made available.
