Free Republic

A federal judge ruled against Michigan's request to remand its lawsuit against the Line 5 pipeline back to a state court, delivering a win for Canadian operator Enbridge Energy. U.S. District Judge Janet Neff on Tuesday ruled the case was properly within federal court jurisdiction, rejecting Michigan's arguments that because its suit was brought on the basis of state laws that it belongs in state court...

A company that owns several refineries in the eastern United States broke down the economic catastrophe that would unfold if Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) successfully kills a crude oil pipeline that has been in operation for over 50 years. Whitmer has ordered Enbridge to cease operating Line 5 by May 12, a pipeline that runs from Canada through Michigan. The company refused to comply with Whitmer’s demand. She has threatened to seize the company’s profits and claimed the pipeline is now “trespassing” on state property in the Straits of Mackinac. Energy, told Breitbart News the fallout from Whitmer’s attempt...

On a sunny Friday afternoon in July 2014, James King, a 21-year-old college student, was walking to a summer job in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when he was accosted by two unshaven men wearing jeans and baseball caps who asked his name and grabbed his wallet. When King tried to flee, the men tackled him, choked him unconscious, and punched him in the face over and over again. The men, it turned out, were cops, and for six years King has been trying to hold them accountable for their actions that day. Next Monday the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether...

      GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN — U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff sentenced Charles Edward Skipp of Grand Rapids to 42 years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge. Skipp pleaded guilty to 10 felony offenses in February 2020, which included being a felon in possession of firearms, stealing firearms from a licensed firearm dealer, retaliating against a witness, discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, knowing transfer of firearms for use in a crime of violence, aiding and abetting retaliating against an informant, aiding and abetting arson in the commission of a federal felony,...

Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback grilled a judge who attended a same-sex union ceremony in 2002, but said he would no longer block her nomination. Brownback, a Kansas senator who opposes gay marriage, last year held up the nomination of Janet T. Neff to be a federal District Court judge in Michigan. The Senate Judiciary Committee had cleared Neff for the post, but Brownback had questions about her role in the same-sex ceremony, which surfaced because of a wedding announcement in The New York Times. The senator said in December he would stop blocking her nomination if he could question...

A federal judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Michigan Republican groups seeking to block a new state redistricting commission. The ruling is the latest legal setback for Republicans, who earlier this year failed to win an injunction that would prevent the formation of the commission, which they contend is unconstitutional. The decision Monday — by U.S. District Court Judge Janet Neff, appointed by GOP President George W. Bush — is a blow to state Republicans who fought against the implementation of the redistricting commission, which was created in 2018.