(Chicago, IL) - Lakefront property owners in La Porte County and elsewhere along the southern tip of Lake Michigan have been dealt another legal blow.

A federal appeals court in Chicago has upheld an Indiana Supreme Court decision that the state owns the shoreline of Lake Michigan for the enjoyment of the public. The federal court decision was in response to a legal challenge from property owners in the town of Porter who claim their lakefront properties extend to the water’s edge.

The shoreline is considered a strip of land between the water’s edge and the ordinary high watermark. The decision by the high court in Indiana was later entered into state law books.

Lakefront property owners in Long Beach complaining about beer bottles and other forms of litter from members of the public walking along the shoreline also failed in a similar legal fight in the past. Instead, the lakefront property owners feel the state has taken a strip of their land they always believed to belong to them.

Supporters of the decision said there’d been a state-owned public right of way from the water’s edge to the ordinary high water mark since Indiana became a state in 1816.