Sunday, April 26, 2026 — Session sprint, docket heat, Great Lakes spring
Late April in Michigan law feels less like a lull than a voltage spike: the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the Court of Appeals to move quickly on challenges to the state’s 24% wholesale marijuana tax, while the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a Sixth Circuit judgment and sent Michigan’s fight to shut down Line 5 back toward state-court litigation — a different procedural lane than the cert denial the site covered last week. Below: juvenile sentencing arguments in People v. Eads, two fresh Court of Appeals opinions, MDARD and EGLE PFAS funding lines, Treasury payment guidance in tension with litigation, and the calendar stack heading into May.
Michigan Supreme Court — Public Act 23 of 2025
Industry and tax counsel spent the week parsing orders that push appellate review of Michigan’s 24% wholesale marijuana excise tax to the front of the line. Trade and national legal press describe a stay paired with expedited Court of Appeals consideration after the Supreme Court intervened — leaving licensees to reconcile litigation risk with Treasury’s payment expectations.
MiCIA et al. v. State of Mich. — follow trade press and docket for final order language.
MLive — Michigan Supreme Court orders review of 24% cannabis tax → Law360 — Michigan high court fast-tracks wholesale tax appeal →U.S. Supreme Court — Line 5
Last week’s edition focused on certiorari denied in a related federal sequence. This week’s development is procedural but consequential: coverage of an April 22, 2026 U.S. Supreme Court order describes the Court vacating a Sixth Circuit judgment and remanding so Michigan’s suit to enforce a Line 5 shutdown may proceed in Michigan state court — shifting energy-litigation strategy toward state judges and state remedies rather than the federal dismissal posture the Sixth Circuit had adopted.
Sixth Circuit decision vacated; remand instructions reframe where Michigan presses its public-trust and easement theories next.
Public reporting emphasizes Ingham County Circuit Court as the arena counsel are watching for revived state litigation after the Supreme Court’s order.
Michigan Supreme Court — Docket 168205
On April 8, 2026, the Court heard argument in a resentencing fight over a decades-old second-degree murder conviction: the question is how Michigan’s constitution and precedent treat very long fixed terms for defendants who were youths at the time of the offense. Practitioners compare the posture to other “juvenile lifer” line cases, but here the dispute turns on whether a 50–75 year range is the functional equivalent of life without the procedural safeguards the Court has built around LWOR.
“The nuances of juvenile lifer rulings” — public media framing of how Michigan’s high court is weighing long term-of-years sentences for crimes committed as minors.WKAR — Michigan Supreme Court oral argument coverage, Apr. 8, 2026
People v. James Gregory Eads, MSC No. 168205.
Michigan Courts — case information: People v. Eads → WKAR — juvenile sentencing argument recap →Michigan Supreme Court — May Calendar
The separation-of-powers fight over bills that cleared the 2024 Legislature but never reached the Governor is now days from oral argument. This edition treats it as a follow-up: the issue is no longer whether the dispute exists, but what remedies the Court might craft without shredding legislative privilege.
Court of Appeals — Published
An April 10, 2026 published opinion from the Michigan Court of Appeals addresses classic tort-litigation mechanics: defamation claims, a recorded conversation offered for its effect on the listener, and how insurers and contractors stack cross-claims after a property dispute goes sideways.
Doan Restoration of Michigan, LLC v. Christine Rowe and MemberSelect Ins. Co., COA No. 369611.
State Bar of Michigan — published opinion PDF (Apr. 10, 2026) →Court of Appeals — Unpublished
Family-defense and tribes-side counsel are reading an April 15, 2026 unpublished Court of Appeals decision involving minors and procedural questions that often intersect with ICWA notice and active efforts findings. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent under MCR 7.215, but they signal how panels are treating fact patterns while the Supreme Court’s family-law docket stays crowded.
In re Leach / Spaller-Leach, Minors, COA No. 376180 (unpublished).
State Bar of Michigan — opinion PDF (Apr. 15, 2026) →MDARD — MPART / PFAS Response
Spring is when nutrient management, biosolids, and irrigation decisions collide with Michigan’s PFAS Action Response Team workstreams. MDARD announced a competitive research grant opportunity aimed at PFAS in agricultural systems — soil chemistry, crop uptake, and livestock exposure questions that eventually become discovery disputes when buyers walk away from contaminated acreage.
EGLE — MPART / Airports
State environmental managers allocated roughly nine million dollars across nineteen municipal airports for PFAS investigation and cleanup — the kind of grant wave that becomes Exhibit A in future cost-recovery suits when plumes intersect residential wells.
Department of Treasury — Guidance
Tax administrators published guidance expecting good-faith quarterly wholesale marijuana tax payments for 2026 even as appellate courts compress the schedule for constitutional attacks. Operators should pair this release with their litigation hold and cash-flow models.
Uncertainty whether to escrow remittances pending Court of Claims outcomes.
Quarterly payment posture articulated by Treasury alongside the new wholesale regime.
Governor’s Office — March 26, 2026
The Governor’s bill-signing packet included bipartisan health-care access measures, local development incentives, and a lighter headline: an official state duck designation. For municipal and health lawyers, the health and development chapters matter more than the ornithology — but every enrolled act still needs a chapter assignment watch.
Cannabis Litigation — Second Track
Public radio reporting highlights a second lawsuit angle: challengers argue the wholesale tax operates as a disguised sales tax, potentially stacking rates in ways that implicate Michigan’s constitutional six-percent cap narrative. Defense and industry counsel are watching whether the Court of Appeals consolidates issues with the MiCIA-led track.
If courts characterize the levy as a sales tax in substance, downstream contracts, municipal revenue sharing assumptions, and even consumer-facing pricing disclosures may need a rewrite.
Coming Up
Legislature scheduled back in committee week per legislature.mi.gov calendars — track fiscal and insurance committees for no-fault and road-funding spillover bills.
Federal RVP waiver window referenced in national EPA materials — align environmental compliance memos with Michigan’s parallel motor-fuel emergency orders if still extended.
MSC oral arguments in Senate v. House of Representatives (No. 169381) — transmission duties for nine 2024 bills.
Monitor Cheboygan basin SEOC extensions if spring rains re-intensify; pair with riparian takings and dam-safety research for municipal clients.