U.S. Supreme Court denies Michigan pipeline case

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over an oil and gas pipeline running through part of the state. 

The case, Whitmer v. Enbridge Energy, challenges a separate lawsuit the Canada-based energy company brought against the state for revoking allowance of the pipeline to be run through part of Michigan. 

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Enbridge Energy's lawsuit against the state policy to continue. Whitmer argued Michigan has a right to decide how its public lands can be used and should be allowed to revoke the company's pipeline access. 

"The Sixth Circuit nonetheless allowed this dispute over a perpetual physical occupation of the State of Michigan’s sovereign lands to proceed in federal court without the State’s consent, adopting an incorrect rule that sovereign immunity does not apply unless the requested relief would divest the State of full ownership and eliminate all regulatory power over the lands," lawyers for Whitmer wrote. 

Lawyers for Enbridge Energy argued that Whitmer did not go about the proper termination route when revoking the company's access to the public lands on which the pipeline ran through. 

"Enbridge 'seeks only to bring the State’s regulatory activities into compliance with federal law and the Constitution,'" lawyers wrote. 

The high court heard arguments in a separate case on a procedural issue over the pipeline lawsuit. The denial of this case, however, likely reveals little on the justice's decision making.