Indiana Supreme Court justices easily win vote for retention

The three Indiana Supreme Court justices on Tuesday’s ballot easily won a vote for retention despite a social media campaign to oust them because of their ruling in support of the Legislature’s near-total abortion ban.

With more than half of the statewide voted counted Tuesday night, each of the three justices — Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justices Mark Massa and Derek Molter — were supported for retention by at least 68 percent of the voters.

No supreme court justice has lost a retention vote since the process was instituted in 1970. The support they received this year is in line with what justices have typically received through the years.

Molter, the court’s youngest justice, was a particular target of the opposition because he wrote the court opinion that upheld the near-total abortion ban that the Republican-dominated Legislature voted into law in 2023.

The law bans abortion in Indiana, with a few, narrow exceptions. Abortions are only allowed in cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities, to preserve the life and physical health of the mother, and in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.

In the 4-1 ruling upholding the ban, Molter wrote that “Article 1, Section 1 (of the Indiana Constitution) protects a woman’s right to an abortion that is necessary to protect her life or to protect her from a serious health risk, but the General Assembly otherwise retains broad legislative discretion for determining whether and the extent to which to prohibit abortions.”

Rush and Massa concurred with that opinion. The state’s two other supreme court justices weren’t on the ballot this year.

While some voters pushed for the justices’ ouster, the Indiana State Bar Association expressed its support for the judges. Also, a political action committee was formed by former justices and prominent attorneys to push for the justices’ retention.

Indiana Court of Appeals Judges Peter Foley and Rudolph Reginald Pyle III also won retention votes.