Four judges on the seven-member Nebraska Supreme Court said the landowners should have won their challenge to the 2012 state law that allowed the governor to empower Calgary-based TransCanada to force them to sell their property for the project. But because the case raised a constitutional question, a supermajority of five judges was needed to rule on the law.
"The legislation must stand by default," the court said in the opinion.
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The proposed 1,179-mile pipeline would carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma along the way.The newly empowered Republican-led Congress is moving ahead on approving the project, with the House scheduled to vote on Friday. The Senate is expected to finish the bill by the end of the month, setting up a showdown with President Barack Obama, who has threatened a veto.
The president also has said he was waiting for the Nebraska court ruling to decide whether to approve the project. The pipeline needs presidential approval because it would cross the U.S.-Canada border.
"President Obama is now out of excuses for blocking the Keystone pipeline and the thousands of American jobs it would create," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said. "Finally, it's time to start building."
