Many consider Minnesota a great place to live, but above all, the state is beloved for its lakes—its clean lakes. The overdevelopment of lakefront shorelines pollutes Minnesota’s water and negatively impacts the environment. Nearly half of Minnesota’s natural shorelines are gone, leaving residents with manicured lawns and vanishing species. Each decade, around 1–2% of Minnesota’s shorelines vanish. Minnesota’s shoreline regulations were last updated in 1989 and no longer meet the demands of the current scale of development and landscaping. This Note argues that Minnesota should look to the landmark climate change case Held v. State for inspiration to protect Minnesota’s shoreline through legal remedies. By amending the Minnesota Constitution to include an environmental rights amendment, commonly referred to as a “green amendment,” the state would establish a long-term solution for protecting its shorelines and enable courts to hold the state accountable. To overcome the common hurdles associated with green amendments, Minnesota’s new environmental rights amendment should be placed in the bill of rights and include language providing a “right to a clean and healthful environment” secured “for this and future generations” to ensure its long-term actionability.
Part I of this Note discusses the background of the vanishing shoreline problem in Minnesota and its negative environmental impacts. It then outlines the various governmental actors responsible for creating and enforcing shoreline regulations, what the regulations entail, and how these regulations are failing to protect shorelines. Part II of this Note discusses current environmental rights amendments. It first reviews the Held case, a landmark decision in environmental rights amendment litigation. It then provides a history of how states adopted environmental rights amendments to their constitutions and analyzes the main issues that arise in lawsuits based on green amendments. Part III ties the prior two parts together to ultimately proposes that Minnesota should adopt an environmental rights amendment to ensure the long-term protection of Minnesota’s shorelines. It discusses the process of amending the Minnesota Constitution and proposes language for the amendment. Finally, it outlines how plaintiffs could bring an action against the State of Minnesota based on this new green amendment and describes how the amendment would provide a long-term solution for protecting and restoring Minnesota’s shorelines.