Politics

Michigan Supreme Court Justices Took Campaign Cash From Jane Fonda Org Weeks Before Freezing Pipeline Project

Wikimedia Commons/Public/Joe Gratz

A political action committee (PAC) dedicated to defeating the fossil fuel industry bankrolled two Michigan Supreme Court justices’ campaigns before they ruled against a major oil pipeline project.

Roughly six weeks before Michigan’s Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh and Justice Noah Hood voted in a 6-1 decision to vacate approval of Enbridge’s Line 5 project citing an inadequate review of environmental impacts, their reelection campaigns each received $5,000 from the Jane Fonda Climate PAC (JanePAC), campaign finance records reveal. The contributions come amid a broader push by climate groups to shape the judiciary by spending money to elect judges with environmental priorities and promoting climate advocacy in lawsuits.

Line 5 is a 645-mile pipeline which originates in Superior, Wis., crosses Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, and terminates near Sarnia, Ontario in Canada. The pipeline transports light crude oil and natural gas liquids and has an average annual capacity of 540,000 barrels per day. Only about four miles of Line 5 cross the Straits of Mackinac, where two 20-inch pipelines currently run primarily near or on the lakebed.

Jane Fonda, an actress and climate activist who founded the PAC, has publicly denounced the pipeline, and supported Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, according to MPR News. She also protested Enbridge Energy’s plan to rebuild the Line 3 crude oil pipeline in Minnesota in 2021, The Associated Press reported.

“This is one more tool the anti-energy left is using to go after anybody that wants to provide low-cost energy to Americans,” Jason Torchinsky, attorney for the Patriots Foundation, an Iowa-based government-transparency watchdog organization (unrelated to the National Football League team), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Climate groups’ pouring money into judicial races blurs the lines between environmental activism and an independent judiciary, especially if judges rule in an environmental case which may be influenced by funding, critics argue.

JanePAC, Cavanagh, and Hood did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The Michigan Supreme Court’s Line 5 ruling also dealt with another major dispute over fossil fuel infrastructure and environmental impacts. The case stems from Enbridge’s plan to relocate the portion of its Line 5 pipeline which crosses the Straits of Mackinac into a tunnel beneath the lakebed.

The Michigan Supreme Court’s July 31 ruling reversed a Michigan Court of Appeals decision which upheld the Michigan Public Service Commission’s approval of Enbridge’s relocation plan. The state supreme court vacated the Commission’s approval and sent the project back to the Michigan Public Service Commission for further proceedings.

The legal battle over Line 5 began in June 2019, when Michigan Attorney General Nessel sued Enbridge in state court. She wanted to decommission the pipeline permanently, describing it as an “unacceptable risk to the Great Lakes.” Nessel argued that continued operation under a 1953 easement violated Michigan’s public trust doctrine and posed an environmental threat to the Great Lakes.

Enbridge later sought to move the case to federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in April that the company waited too long to do so, requiring the case to return to Michigan’s 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County.

Both Cavanagh and Hood are seeking full terms on the Michigan Supreme Court in November and have been endorsed by the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.

JanePAC spent $81,000 in Michigan during the current election cycle, federal records show. The PAC, with its financial network including wealthy donors with ties to climate causes, is also backing Michigan candidates beyond the two state supreme court justices. The group notably endorsed Democratic attorney general nominee Eli Savit, who received $12,500.

In addition, state Senate candidate Natalie Price, Michigan House candidate Jaime Churches, and candidate for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District Will Lawrence — a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a Gen Z Green Deal-focused organization — each received $5,000 for their campaigns, according to federal campaign records.

“I am grateful for the support of Jane Fonda Climate PAC for investing in candidates and campaigns based on shared priorities,” Jaime Churches told the DCNF in an Aug. 29 statement.

“My campaign is focused on making sure working families can afford to live, work, and raise their families in Michigan,” Churches continued. “That includes supporting policies that protect clean air and clean water, hold polluters accountable, protect our Great Lakes, and make sure that our Downriver communities are not left behind as our energy economy changes.”

Savit, Price, and Lawrence did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The Michigan League of Conservation Voters (Michigan LCV) also endorsed Cavanagh and Hood on June 17. The group stated its endorsements are awarded to candidates who demonstrate a “strong commitment” to protecting the environment, public health and “democracy.”

The Michigan LCV and Jane Fonda Climate PAC are part of a national climate coalition which seeks to teach legal practitioners how to apply “climate science” in litigation.

Cavanagh worked in environmental consulting before entering the legal profession, she told “The Portia Project Podcast,” which focuses on the journey of Women in law, in March 2023.

“After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in environmental engineering, Megan worked as a consultant evaluating environmental risk and property development before discovering her true calling in the law,” Cavanagh’s campaign website states. That website, however, does not appear to list her environmental priorities.

Cavanagh’s record includes several rulings highlighted by the Michigan LCV, such as a court order allowing Flint residents’ constitutional claims over contaminated water to proceed, as well as decisions expanding access to government records. Cavanagh also joined the court’s 4-3 decision rejecting an effort to halt certification of Michigan’s 2020 presidential election results.

Hood has a shorter supreme court record, having been appointed in May 2025 after serving on the Michigan Court of Appeals and Wayne County Circuit Court. The Michigan LCV endorsed Hood alongside Cavanagh in June, saying both had demonstrated a commitment to protecting Michigan’s “rights, resources, environment and democracy.” Hood subsequently joined Cavanagh and four other justices in the Line 5 ruling vacating the state commission’s approval of the tunnel project.

The Michigan Public Service Commission had approved Enbridge’s plan in 2023 to replace the existing Straits crossing with a single 30-inch pipeline housed inside a concrete-lined tunnel through bedrock 60 to 370 feet beneath the lakebed. The Commission found a public need for the replacement segment and determined that alternative means of transporting the fuels would carry higher risks and costs for Michigan consumers. The tunnel would also provide, it was argued, additional protection against an accidental rupture or equipment failure.

Michigan commissioned engineering and risk analyses examining the condition of the existing Line 5 pipelines, threats to their operation, and probabilities of failure. The state documented gaps in the pipeline’s protective coating, in addition to a 2018 anchor strike leaving three dents in the pipeline and a 2020 incident damaging an anchor support. The studies, however, didn’t find evidence there was an imminent threat of an oil spill from Line 5.

Michigan also established a no-anchor zone around the Straits crossing, prohibiting vessels from dropping their anchors near the pipelines except in an emergency to reduce the risk of an anchor strike.

The fight over Line 5 extends beyond the tunnel project. Gov. Whitmer’s administration moved in 2020 to revoke the easement allowing the pipeline to cross the Straits and to force Enbridge to cease operating that portion of Line 5. Enbridge fought the attempted shutdown in federal court.

A federal court ultimately blocked Michigan’s shutdown effort in December 2025, finding that federal pipeline safety law preempted the state’s effort and that forcing the international pipeline to close conflicted with U.S. foreign policy, another federal domain. The Justice Department intervened in the case and pointed to a treaty between the United States and Canada governing international pipelines.

The dispute has also spilled into neighboring Wisconsin. The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians sued Enbridge in 2019 over the company’s continued operation of Line 5 across tribal lands after rights-of-way over certain parcels expired. The erosion near the Bad River created a risk that the pipeline could rupture, the tribe also alleged. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in July that Enbridge was trespassing, but ordered a lower court to reconsider the remedies it imposed and concluded that federal law displaced the tribe’s public-nuisance claim.

Enbridge’s broader pipeline network previously suffered a major spill in Michigan. The company’s Line 6B, a separate pipeline from Line 5, ruptured in 2010 near Marshall, Mich., releasing at least 843,444 gallons of oil into the environment — much of which entered Talmadge Creek and flowed into the Kalamazoo River, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Michigan LCV and Enbridge did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.