Mike Murr op-ed: The Murrs go to the Supreme Court, the ‘great equalizer’

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA;  March 17, 2017:  Days before the scheduled March 20 Supreme Court hearing in their high-profile case of Murr v. Wisconsin and St. Croix County, one of the Murr family siblings this week published an op-ed in the family’s hometown newspaper telling the personal story of their years-long struggle through the courts for their property rights.

Mike Murr’s op-ed in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press is titled, “We’re on our way to the Supreme Court, equal before the law.”  It recounts how regulators have blocked the family from selling a vacant parcel along the St. Croix River — a parcel bequeathed them by their late parents as a family investment — simply “because we also own the adjacent parcel.”

“My three siblings and I are the petitioners in this case,” writes Mike, who teaches social science at Simley High School in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.  “We are middle-class citizens born and raised in South St. Paul.  We are a public high school teacher, a retired public employee, a financial planner, and a manager of a drive-in movie theater.”

“When teaching my students about the federal judiciary, I have always said that even an average citizen can get his or her issues heard by SCOTUS,” he notes.  “It turns out I have been right.  Another lesson validated by this experience is how the Supreme Court is the great equalizer.  Four siblings before the Supreme Court have the same standing as the largest corporation, the state of Wisconsin, or the U.S. government.  They are legally equal.”

Mike also thanks Pacific Legal Foundation for representing the Murrs free of charge — and notes how such important public interest legal work offers “a civics lesson” all by itself.

Read the entire op-ed at the Pioneer-Press website.

Media Alert:  The Supreme Court will hold oral argument in PLF’s Murr case on Monday, March 20, at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

Afterward, PLF Executive Vice President and General Counsel John Groen — who will argue the case — will meet the media in front of the court, joined by members of the Murr family.

PLF will stream this press conference on Facebook Live, and provide an archived video along with photos afterward.  Visit:  www.pacificlegal.org.

To arrange interviews, contact Kate Pomeroy, PLF Media Director, at (970) 274-4063 or at " target="newwin">.