Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the Canadian company Enbridge Energy unquestionably missed the deadline to move the case to federal court.
Enbridge preferred federal court because of national pipeline safety laws. Michigan preferred state court because Line 5 runs through public water and land.
Andy Buschbaum is a lawyer for the Great Lakes Business Network
He says with this technical question out of the way, state courts can decide if the pipeline should be shut down:
“The state court will have a chance to determine whether Line 5 poses a huge risk to the people of Michigan and to the Great Lakes. The justices of the court, regardless of ideology, agreed that it’s the state court that’s the proper court to hear this dispute.”
Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy says in a statement the federal agency overseeing pipeline safety hasn’t found any issues that would warrant shutting down Line 5.
