Committee week per legislature.mi.gov — track House and Senate fiscal panels for any court-funding or dam-safety referrals tied to HB 5485.
Sunday, May 3, 2026 — Lilacs, runoff, and a Lansing calendar that finally bites
Early May in Michigan law is less about quiet filings and more about who controls the courthouse door: new reporting on a statewide Supreme Court policy line on immigration-related arrests lands the same stretch of the calendar where the Michigan Supreme Court will hear chamber-versus-chamber arguments over nine withheld bills. Below, the Attorney General presses parallel multistate litigation and amicus work, the Court of Appeals publishes utility-tax and probate decisions you can cite Monday morning, and EGLE spotlights dam-safety legislation as spring construction and snowmelt raise risk profiles statewide.
Michigan Supreme Court — Courthouse Practice
Trial judges, prosecutors, and family-defense counsel are comparing notes after reporting that the Michigan Supreme Court is moving on courthouse immigration arrests — the kind of operational detail that changes witness lists, victim-services choreography, and even whether a client will walk through a metal detector next week. The through-line is simple: Michigan’s courts are not passive corridors for federal enforcement if statewide rules say otherwise.
Expect updated internal protocols on notification, timing, and who speaks for the court when immigration enforcement appears at civil and criminal call.
Federalism fights rarely stay inside a single order: watch removal motions, habeas adjacent briefing, and local-funding questions if arrests disrupt dockets.
Michigan Supreme Court — No. 169381 (follow-up)
Follow-up since the April 26 edition: the separation-of-powers dispute over bills that cleared the 2024 Legislature but were not presented to the Governor is no longer a calendar abstraction. The Court has posted May 6–7 argument sessions; practitioners should treat any client-facing “effective date” memo as contingent until the Court speaks.
In re Senate of the State of Michigan v. House of Representatives, MSC No. 169381.
Michigan Courts — case information: Senate v. House → Michigan Courts — news release on May oral arguments →Attorney General — Multistate Litigation
The Attorney General’s office framed April as a two-step move: first, April 3 coalition litigation over a federal executive order touching mail voting and state election administration; then, an April 27 press push describing a summary judgment request aimed at a durable injunction. For Michigan clerks and campaign lawyers, the posture is now about briefing schedules in federal court, not press-release politics alone.
U.S. Supreme Court — Amicus
On April 2, 2026, the Department of Attorney General publicized leadership of a multistate coalition filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending investigative tools that turn on location data — the sort of Fourth Amendment argument that eventually washes back into Michigan trial courts through suppression motions and warrant affidavits.
Michigan-led bipartisan attorneys general coalition (amicus).
Defend constitutionality of geofence warrants as a law-enforcement technique in the Supreme Court docket.
Every homicide and cold-case task force using tower dumps is reading the same footnotes you are.
Court of Appeals — Published, Apr. 29, 2026
The Court of Appeals released a published decision in CMS Energy Corp. v. Department of Treasury on April 29, 2026 — the kind of docket corporate and municipal tax counsel keep pinned even when headlines chase election law. Published COA work is precedential; treat the Court’s analysis as governing for later disputes over assessments, exemptions, and administrative records.
High salience for in-house tax and regulatory teams modeling Michigan Treasury controversies through 2026.
CMS Energy Corp. v. Department of Treasury, COA No. 374696 (published Apr. 29, 2026).
Michigan Courts — Court of Appeals case details (374696) →Court of Appeals — Published, Apr. 27, 2026
Estates-and-trusts practitioners received a April 27, 2026 published opinion in In re Nielsen Estate — useful for chains of title, fiduciary accounting fights, and any matter where the register of deeds and the probate court disagree about what “final” means for a decedent’s marshalled assets.
Michigan Courts — Court of Appeals case details (368054) →“Published” is the operative word: unlike the flood of unpublished family-law memoranda, this decision is citable precedent under Michigan appellate practice rules.
Court of Appeals — Published, Apr. 10, 2026
Education lawyers tracking ISD funding mechanics and state-aid formulas should pull the April 10, 2026 published decision in Macomb Intermediate School District v. State of Michigan. The posture sits at the intersection of Proposal A politics, intermediate districts, and the Department of Education’s fiscal implementation work.
Criminal Justice — Clean Slate
Policy reporting in mid-April put a headline number on Michigan’s Clean Slate automatic expungement architecture: on the order of 1.6 million criminal records cleared under the state’s framework. For defense lawyers and employers, the story is not the press release adjective but the HR workflow and ban-the-box compliance consequences when background databases lag the court’s orders.
Clerk data pipelines and prosecutor notifications still drive edge cases the statute did not automate cleanly.
Adverse-action letters need refreshed vendor attestations when expunged counts ghost out of commercial databases late.
Screening criteria tied to old conviction flags may create FCRA and state-law risk if not updated after expungement.
Task Force — Courts, Fines & Fees
Bridge Michigan’s coverage of a Michigan task force report sketches a legislative season question: whether to re-balance how trial courts are funded and to standardize fines and fees so local budgets do not depend on docket volume. For judges and clerks, that is not an abstract fairness debate — it is docket pressure, staffing, and collections practice in one envelope.
Localities tether revenue expectations to caseflow; defense counsel see payment plans as probation-adjacent leverage.
State-level funding conversation paired with fine-and-fee uniformity proposals heading toward Lansing committees.
Election Administration — Antrim County
Election-law practitioners are watching Antrim County reporting where state and local election officials traded public letters threatening legal action over voter-roll maintenance. The fight is a microcosm of 2026’s larger tension: NVRA list-maintenance obligations, Michigan Constitution roles for the Secretary of State, and county clerks’ operational independence.
The takeaway for counsel is procedural: document every list-maintenance notice, cure window, and federal-state interface before a judge asks for a timestamped chain.
EGLE — Dam Safety & Legislature
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy used a late-April statement to elevate House Bill 5485 and related dam-safety themes — inspection cadence, owner accountability, and emergency response funding. Riparian owners and municipal risk managers should pair the press line with the bill text when advising insurers after heavy rain cycles.
MPART / EGLE — PFAS
An early-February Mi Environment feature from EGLE catalogued MPART workload metrics useful in cost-recovery and insurance letters: statewide sampling, remediation milestones, and the political economy of Michigan’s drinking-water MCL posture relative to federal primacy deadlines. Environmental and real-estate lawyers cite these releases in demand letters even months later.
Coming Up
Committee week per legislature.mi.gov — track House and Senate fiscal panels for any court-funding or dam-safety referrals tied to HB 5485.
Michigan Supreme Court oral arguments session opens; Senate v. House of Representatives (No. 169381) is calendared for the May 6–7 call per court postings.
Continue monitoring the same May session calendar for additional civil cases; check the Court’s livestream schedule if you are advising legislative clients remotely.
Local-government clients with Memorial Day event permits: sync alcohol enforcement and MDHHS food-safety inspections early; spring festival season returns Up North.