The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Jan. 23, edition that the U.S. government has been asked to explain to a federal Appeals Court precisely how it believes the country's 1977 pipeline treaty with Canada should affect efforts to shut down the controversial cross-border Line 5. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that a forthcoming Department of Justice brief will mark the Biden administration's first public foray into the dispute between Enbridge and an indigenous band in Wisconsin. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals wants the written amicus brief by Feb. 8, when it is scheduled to hear oral arguments from both Enbridge and the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. "The court requests the United States to file a brief in this appeal as amicus curiae to address the effect of the agreement and any other issues that the United States believes to be material," the court ordered last month. Canada invoked the treaty in the Wisconsin case in August, 2022, a year after it did much the same in Michigan, where state Attorney-General Dana Nessel has been waging a similar legal battle against Line 5. Both sides are appealing last year's decision, which ordered Line 5 rerouted by June, 2026.