Sunday, April 19, 2026 — Spring runoff, pump prices, and pipelines
This week Michigan law feels like hydraulics: the Michigan Supreme Court released pressure on no-fault denials in Swoope v. Citizens Insurance Co. of the Midwest by separating unlawful taking from unlawful operation under MCL 500.3113(a), while the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s Line 5 sovereign-immunity play — leaving federal court as the arena. In Lansing, the Governor issued overlapping emergencies: cheaper vapor-pressure gasoline in Metro Detroit through Executive Order 2026-4, and a Cheboygan Basin dam emergency through Executive Order 2026-5. Practitioners are threading new PIP screens, new tax-audit lessons from Sav-Time, and a May calendar that could decide whether nine 2024 bills ever reach the Governor’s desk.
Michigan Supreme Court — No-Fault
After the Court of Appeals read unlicensed driving as an automatic disqualifier, the Supreme Court drew a cleaner statutory line: MCL 500.3113(a) asks whether a claimant was operating a vehicle that was taken unlawfully — possession without authority — not whether every traffic-code violation is secretly a “taking.” Assigned-claims and carrier counsel are rewriting coverage memos accordingly; the case returns to the COA on the narrower factual question about permission.
Possession contrary to law — the owner forbade use, theft, conversion. Knowledge (“knew or should have known”) still anchors the exclusion.
License status, speed, plates — still serious, but not automatically the same statutory disqualifier as a wrongful taking.
Carlonda Naishe Swoope v. Citizens Ins. Co. of the Midwest, MSC No. 166790 — analysis of March 10, 2026 disposition.
Kopka Pinkus Dolin — Swoope impact on MCL 500.3113(a) →U.S. Supreme Court — Certiorari
The nation’s highest court denied review in the Enbridge dispute, leaving Michigan to fight pipeline closure politics with federal preemption and contract law rather than an Eleventh Amendment exit ramp. For the Straits, that means continued federal docketing on federal pipeline safety and related claims — not a clean jurisdictional off-switch for the state.
Lansing State Journal — U.S. Supreme Court denies Line 5 cert petition →Executive Power — EO 2026-4
Invoking Michigan’s energy-emergency statute, the Governor suspended the southeast Michigan summer switch to lower-vapor-pressure gasoline that typically lands in June — aiming to keep cheaper blends on sale while AAA Michigan was reporting regular near $3.89 statewide. The order pairs with a federal EPA waiver narrative for May; energy lawyers are tracking environmental enforcement risk alongside consumer-price relief.
Emergency Management — EO 2026-5
A separate emergency order responded to hydrology, not hydrocarbons: rapid melt and rain pushed Cheboygan River flows toward the dam complex crest, triggering the State Emergency Operations Center and a county-level emergency framed around public-safety infrastructure. For municipal and riparian counsel, the week is a reminder that Michigan’s spring legal calendar includes inundation maps, not just statutes.
Michigan Supreme Court — May Calendar
The Court calendared arguments over nine 2024-session bills that cleared the Legislature but never reached the Governor — public-sector health premiums, corrections retirement, wage garnishment, and other pocketbook statutes wrapped in a raw separation-of-powers fight. The Court of Appeals already ordered the House to transmit; the Supreme Court now weighs justiciability, standing, and the scope of mandamus.
Tax — Sav-Time, Inc. v. Dep’t of Treasury
The Court of Appeals upheld Treasury’s use of an indirect method when taxpayers could not produce invoices that cleanly separated taxable parts from exempt labor. The lesson for dealers and quick-lube chains is procedural: if your POS narrative cannot reconstruct taxable sales, the Department will do it for you — with interest.
Attorney General — Federal Environmental Litigation
Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office signed Michigan onto a multistate complaint challenging EPA’s pullback on mercury and hazardous air pollutant limits for coal- and oil-fired EGUs. Downwind Great Lakes states care about stack emissions because deposition still shows up in fish-tissue advisories and municipal monitoring programs.
Environment — MPART / Airport Response
Public-radio reporting tied state airport-response grants to deeper soils work at Willow Run, where historical firefighting foam left PFAS fingerprints in soils and groundwater. EGLE’s broader airport grant slate continues to fund investigations that later become exhibits in cost-recovery litigation.
“Further investigations of soils and groundwater” — local coverage summarizing how grant dollars extend legacy foam investigations near drinking-water receptors.WEMU — Issues of the Environment, Apr. 15, 2026
Cannabis Regulation — CRA / LARA
The Cannabis Regulatory Agency issued an advisory bulletin clarifying that Michigan’s wholesale marijuana excise tax stands on statutory invoices and economics, not on Metrc screen assumptions. Compliance officers are pairing the bulletin with new wholesale-tax remittance rules so licensees do not conflate traceability with tax base.
Fiscal — Public Act 23 of 2025
Industry reporting highlights April 20, 2026 as the first remittance milestone for Michigan’s 24% wholesale marijuana tax — the policy offspring of road-funding politics meeting cannabis economics. Operators are modeling penalties even as Supreme Court briefing continues over the tax’s validity.
EGLE — Great Lakes Season
EGLE used early April to push watershed protection messaging to local officials — the soft-law side of spring enforcement when algal nutrients, construction stormwater, and dam safety all compete for staff hours. Pair this with Cheboygan hydrology and PFAS airport work: Michigan environmental practice is spatially huge but calendar-sensitive.
Bookmark both MPART technical updates and SEOC declarations; your client’s “environmental” issue may be a dam crest, not a permit.
Federal Alignment — U.S. EPA
National reporting on EPA’s temporary Reid Vapor Pressure waiver gives context for why Lansing timed its Michigan-only emergency order to bridge spring pump prices ahead of federal alignment. Environmental lawyers will watch Michigan’s ozone attainment storylines even when the economics favor cheaper summer blends.
Coming Up