Senate committees are expected to receive the HELP UP property-tax package; fiscal agencies should publish updated school-aid and local-government impact sheets.
Sunday, May 24, 2026 — When court access rules, tax ledgers, and Straits permits share the same news cycle
The Michigan Supreme Court finished a rulemaking arc that limits civil arrests (including administrative immigration warrants) for people traveling to and from required court appearances — a courthouse-access story running parallel to a House Republican property-tax package that cleared on a 57–44 vote and a reopened EGLE wastewater permit track for the Line 5 tunnel project. This edition threads those developments with fresh Court of Appeals publications on automotive trade secrets, probate procedure, PIP subrogation, and a sales-tax exemption fight over medical supplies.
Michigan Supreme Court — Court rules, effective May 1, 2026
Reporting around late April and mid-May describes an amendment to the Michigan Court Rules under which parties, attorneys, and subpoenaed witnesses are not subject to civil arrest while going to, attending, and returning from required court proceedings — language practitioners read alongside federal immigration enforcement patterns after the reversal of prior courthouse protected area
guidance. Justice Noah Hood filed a concurrence emphasizing rulemaking authority; Justice Brian Zahra dissented, arguing the change exceeds the problem on Michigan’s ground.
The rule is cast as preserving orderly courts and predictable attendance by shielding required participants from civil arrest during direct travel tied to their court obligations.
Zahra’s published dissent treats the amendment as political symbolism with limited practical protection given federal enforcement realities outside state jurisdiction.
Bridge Michigan — Supreme Court courthouse immigration arrest rule → Michigan Public Radio — rule banning civil arrests at legal proceedings →MCR context — Read the amendment alongside local security plans, witness coordination memos, and any federal forum overlap for the same client.
Michigan House — Property taxes, May 20–21, 2026
After an extended session, accounts describe passage of a package dubbed Hall Effectively Lowering Property Taxes and Utility Payments, including elimination of the six-mill State Education Tax, changes to the pop-up
assessment on transfers, and personal-property tax exemptions with negotiated offsets still pending. Representative Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) returned to the floor to supply a pivotal vote while Representative Jaime Greene (R-Richmond) broke ranks against the package.
57 yeas / 44 nays as reported for the May 21 House vote on the package.
EGLE — Part 31 NPDES, May 19–June 30, 2026
State coverage describes EGLE publishing a new public notice for treated wastewater discharges tied to tunnel construction and operation, with comments accepted through June 30, 2026 and a virtual meeting and hearing on June 18, 2026. Environmental and municipal counsel are modeling intake and discharge plumes against NREPA Part 31 standards while tribal and federal threads continue on parallel permits.
EGLE — Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, FY 2026
EGLE’s competitive Fuel Transformation Program request for proposals targets diesel particulate reductions through fleet replacement, marine upgrades, locomotive repowering, and port shore-power installations — the kind of docket that intersects Title V counsel, transit authority procurement, and airport ground-support electrification.
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Approximate statewide funding ceiling summarized in regional news mirroring the department release.
Michigan Attorney General — Older Michiganians Day, May 13, 2026
Attorney General Dana Nessel used Older Michiganians Day to push scam recognition resources and highlight the Elder Abuse Task Force, a multi-organization network proposing statutory updates for financial exploitation cases that land in probate and criminal dockets alike.
State materials continue to route abuse concerns through 800-24-ABUSE and related consumer lines.
Financial-exploitation petitions often pair with guardianship motions — coordinate discovery with banking subpoenas early.
Local prosecutors increasingly mirror AG consumer alerts in charging narratives for wire and gift-card schemes.
Michigan Attorney General — International trade litigation, May 8, 2026
The Department’s release summarizes a U.S. Court of International Trade order granting summary judgment in favor of states that challenged a Section 122 tariff proclamation, with the court reportedly concluding that trade deficits are not the same as balance-of-payment deficits authorizing emergency levies. Supply-chain counsel are watching for appellate stays that could snap tariffs back into place while Lansing debates property-tax offsets.
Michigan Court of Appeals — Published May 11, 2026
The Court of Appeals released a for-publication opinion in the long-running GM litigation against former purchasing chief Alphons Iacobelli and FCA US / Stellantis entities, preserving momentum for trial teams briefing corporate espionage, antitrust overlays, and discovery fights that began in Wayne Circuit dockets years ago.
Michigan Courts — COA opinion PDF (370051) →Published May 11, 2026 — caption unifies multiple appeals from LC No. 20-011998-CB; cite the slip as General Motors, LLC v Iacobelli, ___ Mich App ___ (2026), until Michigan Reports pagination is assigned.
Michigan Court of Appeals — Published conservatorship procedure
A published panel decision summarized in practitioner press holds that a probate court could not rely on a guardian-ad-litem confidential report without giving an interested father the opportunity to examine it first, ordering a new hearing to cure the MCR 5.121(D)(2)(a) violation. The holding is a checklist item for every Friend of the Court crossover file where GAL materials drive conservatorship outcomes.
Access to confidential GAL submissions before they anchor the court’s findings.
New hearing with mandated review opportunity rather than harmless-error gloss.
Email exchanges asking what is in the GAL file now need written court direction logged in the register.
Michigan Court of Appeals — Conflict panel, no-fault subrogation
A special conflict panel reportedly overruled Citizens Ins Co v Pezzani & Reid Equip Co in part, reading MCL 500.3116 as governing reimbursement from a claimant’s tort recovery rather than extinguishing independent subrogation suits against certain nonmotorist actors. Carriers and premises defendants should rerun reservation-of-rights letters the week this analysis propagates.
Text focuses on repayment out of the recovery
from third-party tort actions.
Distinguish reimbursement claims tied to the insured’s judgment from direct tortfeasor suits.
Watch for applications in construction-defect and product-liability auto crashes on private property.
Michigan House — Clean energy standards, May 12, 2026
Journal entries show the House adopting a substitute to HB 5711 with immediate effect and transmitting the bill to the Senate’s Government Operations committee — a structural fight over MCL 460.1001 et seq. that pairs with last week’s energy appellate calendar in very different forums.
2008 PA 295 framework for clean and renewable standards as summarized in the enrolled bill digest.
Substitute H-3 repeals and amends multiple sections; Senate Democrats now control whether the package moves.
Michigan Court of Appeals — Sales and use tax
Trade press reports a published Court of Appeals decision denying use-tax refunds for a supplier of wound-care products aimed at catastrophically disabled patients, with Judge Stephen Borrello writing that disposable gloves and similar items cannot stretch the prosthetic-device exemption without collapsing the statute’s boundaries.
Opinion PDF pending
Bloomberg Tax summarizes the panel’s reasoning on prosthetic-device exemptions; attach the published Michigan Court of Appeals slip from the state opinions index before filing your brief.
Coming Up
Senate committees are expected to receive the HELP UP property-tax package; fiscal agencies should publish updated school-aid and local-government impact sheets.
Track HB 5711 referral hearings in Senate Government Operations for possible amendments to the clean-energy repeal posture.
EGLE virtual meeting and hearing at 6:00 p.m. on the Line 5 tunnel draft NPDES permit — calendar the Zoom registration link from the state notice.
Administrative record deadline for Line 5 wastewater comments; file technical exhibits early to avoid portal congestion.