Update (April 11, 2011): The case goes before Hennepin County Judge Philip Bush for trial this week. Steve Karnowski of AP Press covers the case here.
(Original Post June 24, 2010): While many of us are frustrated by spotty cell phone coverage, many of us at the same time long for places “off the grid,” places of pristine natural beauty and isolation from “civilized society.”
The tension is brought to a head in the recently filed lawsuit by the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness (represented by Tom Mahlum and a team of lawyers from Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi) against AT&T Mobility to stop the construction of a cell phone tower near Fall Lake, Minnesota. In addition to filing a complaint (a fairly short complaint with a single count under the Minnesota environmental rights act “MERA”)), FBWW also seeks a temporary injunction. According to their brief, a decision in this case is all but dictated from an undistinguishable earlier case: Minnesota by Drabik v. Martz, 451 N.W.2d 893 (Minn. Ct. App. 1990), review denied (1990).