Thursday afternoon, a Madison-based environmental law firm filed an appeal to Milwaukee Circuit Court on behalf of Paul Florsheim.
Florsheim is the Shorewood resident who last summer received a citation from the village for walking the shoreline beyond the public beach.
Florsheim chose not to pay the $313 ticket and instead argued his case in municipal court. He believes it’s everyone’s right to enjoy the Lake Michigan shoreline — based on a core element of our state constitution, called the Public Trust Doctrine.
Florsheim lost the case, but said he would appeal.
That brings us to this week. Thursday afternoon a Madison-based environmental law firm filed an appeal to Milwaukee Circuit Court on Florsheim's behalf.
“Today it was publicly announced that Paul Florsheim retained Midwest Environmental Advocates as his attorney, and they filed an appeal from the municipal court ruling against him. He also paid his fine in order to file this appeal,” says Melissa Scanlan, Director of the Center for Water Policy at UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences.
It's the next step to determine whether the public has the right to walk the shores of Lake Michigan within Wisconsin.
In the Shorewood municipal court ruling, the judge cited a century-old case that went before the state Supreme Court having to do with Lake Winnebago.
“The judge thought that was precedent that she needed to follow," Scanlan says. "That case...is over 100 years old and involved an inland water body. To date, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has not ruled on whether or not the public has the right to walk on the beaches of the Great Lakes shoreline."
In its press release Thursday, Midwest Environmental Advocates stated Florsheim’s appeal “is the next step in a series of legal proceedings that could go all the way up to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. “
