Michigan Supreme Court — March 11, 2026
Seven justices heard 90 minutes of argument on whether the MPSC conducted an adequate environmental review before approving Enbridge’s plan to relocate Line 5 into a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Tribal nations, the Great Lakes, and Michigan’s energy future hang in the balance.
On March 11, the Michigan Supreme Court heard back-to-back oral arguments on whether the Michigan Public Service Commission properly discharged its obligations under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act when it approved Enbridge Energy’s Act 16 application in December 2023 — a permit allowing the company to relocate a 4.5-mile segment of Line 5 from the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac into a concrete-lined tunnel 100 feet beneath the lake floor.
The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Grand Traverse Band, and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, joined by For Love of Water (FLOW), argued the MPSC violated MEPA by refusing to allow evidence on the full pipeline’s oil spill risks and by failing to assess alternatives to approval. Justices pressed both sides on whether the scope of review was improperly narrowed.
Enbridge attorney John Bursch urged the court to view the choice as binary: a pipeline on the lakebed, or a pipeline in a tunnel. Rejecting the tunnel, he argued, would mean the existing 70-year-old dual 20-inch pipes remain on the Straits floor for another five to six years, creating the very environmental risks opponents sought to eliminate.
Michigan Public Radio — MSC Line 5 Arguments →The MPSC refused to consider evidence about the full Line 5 system’s spill risks and failed to analyze the pipeline’s public necessity, violating MEPA’s mandate to consider all relevant environmental harms before issuing a siting permit.
The MPSC correctly limited review to the tunnel permit — the question before it was tunnel vs. lakebed, not pipeline vs. no pipeline. A ruling against the permit leaves Line 5 on the Straits floor, worsening the environmental risk.
The EPA officially added the Gelman Sciences Inc. site to the Superfund National Priorities List on March 12. The company discharged 1,4-dioxane—a probable human carcinogen linked to liver and kidney damage—into surrounding ponds for over two decades before operations ceased in 1986. The chemical migrated into aquifers supplying municipal and residential drinking water, and threatens continued migration toward the Huron River.
The Superfund designation unlocks federal enforcement authority and cleanup funding, and will allow EPA to pursue a comprehensive remedy requiring groundwater restoration—something the company’s prior state agreement, requiring only pump-and-treat operations, did not compel.
Championed by Sens. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater), the bipartisan package passed the Senate on March 11 and now moves to the House. SB 449–451 require hospitals to establish financial assistance programs by January 1, 2027, standardizing eligibility to federal poverty guidelines and requiring plain-language patient disclosure.
Detroit News — Michigan Senate Medical Debt Vote →Federal law requires Michigan to share unredacted voter roll data — including Social Security numbers — with the federal government. The DOJ filed suit, lost at the district level in February 2026, and immediately appealed to the Sixth Circuit, where briefing has been expedited.
The statutes cited by the DOJ do not require disclosure of personally identifiable voter information. U.S. District Judge dismissed the suit in February. Michigan’s voter maintenance practices are among the nation’s most robust, removing 1.4M+ outdated registrations since 2019.
“Corporations cannot circumvent state gaming laws. My office will hold those who sidestep Michigan’s consumer protections accountable.”
— Attorney General Dana Nessel, March 5, 2026
KalshiEx, LLC — a New York-based prediction market platform — operates what functions as an unregulated online sports betting product. Kalshi allows Michigan residents to wager on sports outcomes through “event contracts,” including spreads, over/under wagers, and proposition bets. The company holds no Michigan sports betting license.
Michigan’s Lawful Sports Betting Act limits online sports wagering to state-licensed casinos and federally-authorized tribal casinos. Kalshi holds neither license. AG Nessel seeks a declaration of common law nuisance and a permanent injunction prohibiting Kalshi from advertising or operating in Michigan.
In 2020, Wolverine and 3M paid $69.5 million to extend municipal water lines to PFAS-contaminated homes in northern Kent County — settling litigation over forever chemicals from Wolverine’s former Rockford tannery, which used 3M’s Scotchgard in shoe manufacturing since the 1950s. Now, a dispute over what “cleanup completion” means in Area 19 (Algoma Township) is heading back to federal court.
When an injured person’s allowable medical expenses under a first-priority no-fault policy are exhausted, they may recover the remainder from the next policy in the statutory priority order under MCL 500.3114. The panel held this “stacking” of PIP benefits is consistent with the No-Fault Act’s text.
Directly affects motorcyclist claims (where no PIP policy may exist) and catastrophic injury cases where first-priority policy benefit caps are reached. Insurers at lower priority levels may face exposure for allowable expenses above first-priority limits. Practitioners should review coordination clauses.
The CRA continues its monthly disciplinary cycle, with sanctions ranging from fines and license conditions to suspension and revocation. Potential sanctions on all formal complaints include refusal to renew. Michigan’s cannabis market carries over 1,500 active retail licenses statewide.
LARA — CRA March Disciplinary Actions →EGLE issued a violation notice to Iowa-based trucking company Quest Liner after a January 27 crash on Interstate 196 near Saugatuck spilled approximately 26,000 pounds of plastic pellets — known as “nurdles” — into the Kalamazoo River. The river is already a federally designated Superfund site due to decades of PCB contamination from former paper mills.
EGLE ordered Quest Liner to document the full volume of material hauled and develop a cleanup plan. The complication: PCB-contaminated sediment in the riverbed means physical cleanup could stir up legacy contamination, creating a secondary environmental injury. The enforcement order requires the company to coordinate cleanup with federal and state regulators before disturbing river sediment.
Detroit News — Kalamazoo Nurdle Spill →