Wisconsin Professor Fights $313 Ticket Over Lake Michigan Beach Walk

Paul Florsheim received a $313 trespassing ticket from the Village of Shorewood, Wisconsin, for walking on a Lake Michigan beach. Fortune reported that the retired UW-Milwaukee professor has walked the shoreline for more than 50 years and returned to his hometown in 2008 after three decades away. Florsheim’s case remains pending in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

A hearing is scheduled for August 13. On June 22 his attorneys filed a response brief arguing that the land is owned by the state of Wisconsin. A municipal judge ruled against him in January and issued a 16-page opinion stating she was bound by the 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in Doemel v.

Wisconsin recognizes the Ordinary High Water Mark as the boundary of public ownership on shorelines yet grants landowners exclusive control over the strip between that mark and open water. Florsheim’s brief contends the access right is protected under the public trust doctrine embedded in the state constitution.

Fortune reported that Florsheim links his dispute to a June 19 Texas Supreme Court ruling that dismissed challenges by SaveRGV, the Sierra Club, and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas to SpaceX’s closure of Boca Chica Beach during launches.

The court dismissed the case on standing grounds without addressing a 2009 constitutional amendment on public beach access that passed with 77 percent voter support. The same week, SpaceX completed a $75 billion IPO. ” Over 220 data centers are planned across the Great Lakes region, Fortune reported.

Microsoft is investing $20 billion in facilities at Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. In July 2025 President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use federally owned land for data center development. Virginia currently hosts 663 operating data centers with another 595 planned.