Terry Moore, president of the Omaha Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, said that from his perspective, a Supreme Court ruling against the pipeline will just delay the arrival of needed construction jobs in Nebraska.

“There’s nothing to fear in this project,” Moore said as he stood among representatives from business, industry and agricultural groups that also support the pipeline.

The key issues before the court are whether the landowners have legal standing to bring the lawsuit and whether the Legislature violated the Nebraska Constitution when it passed the law that let Gov. Dave Heineman approve the pipeline route. Many questions from the judges focused on those two issues.

The landowners, who live either on or near the pipeline path, won a decision earlier this year before Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie Stacy, who struck down the law. Attorney General Jon Bruning appealed the ruling on behalf of the state.

The landowners contend the Nebraska Constitution says authority to regulate the pipeline belongs to the five independently elected members of the Public Service Commission. They argue the Legislature illegally gave that authority to the governor when it created a law allowing major pipelines to submit an application to either the governor or the commission.