Rose Knick: Reluctant Supreme Court Hero

Objective

Rose Knick purchased land in Pennsylvania in 1970 and farmed that land for most of her life. In 2008, she got a knock on the door from the local government saying that there is a pile of rocks that they think may be a grave, so they decided to make her land open to the public. Public records show there are no graves on Rose's land, but the government opened her property to the public anyway.

Rose didn't want an 11-year legal battle, but she thought it important to help other farmers and landowners.

Strategy

This video was part of a campaign to raise awareness about Rose's case and educate about what was at stake. Pacific Legal Foundation created a breadth of materials to raise awareness about why this is important and what is at stake. They created a landing page on pacificlegal.org that outlines the case in easily understandable terms and gives access to resources like articles and documents to provide transparency about the case. This video was released the week PLF presented the case in front of the Supreme Court.

Results

On June 21, 2019, the Supreme Court agreed with Rose in a 5 to 4 decision that property rights protected under the Fifth Amendment have just as much clout as the rights protected in the rest of the Constitution.