SHOREWOOD — The Village of Shorewood issued a $313 trespassing ticket to Paul Florsheim, a retired University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor, for walking on a stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline in Shorewood, Wisconsin. Florsheim's legal case is currently proceeding in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, and he intends to appeal it to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

A municipal judge ruled against Florsheim in January, with the decision based on the 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling of Doemel v. Jantz. The judge issued a 16-page opinion, noting that she was bound by the precedent set by Doemel v. Jantz, but also stating that the ruling should potentially be revisited or overturned. Florsheim's attorneys filed a response brief with the circuit court on June 22.

The brief argues that the land where Florsheim walked is owned by the state of Wisconsin, not by his neighbor. "It is decidedly not his land; it is the public's land," the brief states. Wisconsin recognizes the Ordinary High Water Mark as the boundary of public ownership, but also grants landowners exclusive control over the shoreline strip between private property and this mark. A hearing for Florsheim's case is scheduled for August 13.

Florsheim has walked on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Shorewood for more than 50 years. His neighbor, a dentist who built a boathouse on the beach, called police on walkers. Florsheim indicated his dispute is with the Village of Shorewood rather than his neighbor. He declined to settle the trespassing case, even after the Village of Shorewood lawyer encouraged him to do so before the December 2024 trial date.

"Lake Michigan has sort of got a personality," Florsheim said. "It changes its moods all the time. I go all throughout the year, even in the bitterest part of winter, because it's just beautiful down there. You have these ice flows, and they're sort of like volcanoes, and the waves come crashing through these structures. It's like another world."

"The access to the beach is part of the public trust doctrine, which is baked into the state's constitution," Florsheim said. "So even though there hasn't been a vote, there really doesn't need to be, because it is established." He said, "If we don't stand up for what is ours, sort of collectively ours, we're going to regret it down the road. People don't want to give up what belongs to them, just as members of the citizenry. And I do think that's what's resonating right now." A water policy professor at the University of Wisconsin told Florsheim she had been waiting for a case like his throughout her career.