If you’ll recall, a couple of weeks ago, Enbridge filed a Notice of Removal to have a POLAR lawsuit heard in federal court. The case is now before U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland. The suit filed by POLAR sought both a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order asking the court to halt construction work by Enbridge.
Late last week, Judge Cleland issued two orders in the case. First, he “terminated without prejudice as moot” POLAR’s motion for a temporary restraining order. What that means is that he did not rule one way or the other on the merits of the motion; rather, he ruled that the motion is a non-issue because the other motion– for a preliminary injunction– “supersedes” it. In other words, there’s no need for the court to consider both a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order. The court will consider just the former.
Why is this good news? Well, because it means that the the motion for a preliminary injunction WILL go forward; POLAR will have its hearing. So Judge Cleland’s second order set a date for that hearing– October 22– and gave a number of very pointed instructions for both sides on how to gather and present facts and evidence in advance of the hearing. (And I’ll tell you, having read lots of orders, filings, and hearing transcripts from county and state courts, it’s clear that these federal judges do NOT mess around; Cleland runs a very tight ship).
So mark your calendars: October 22nd will be a very important date for landowners along Line 6B.
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