NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Elon Musk urged a federal appeals court to throw out a provision in his 2018 consent decree with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requiring a Tesla Inc lawyer to vet some of his posts on Twitter.

In a filing late on Tuesday with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, Musk's lawyers called the pre-approval requirement a "government-imposed muzzle" that inhibited and chilled his lawful speech, and violated the U.S. constitution. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)