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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is asking the state’s high court to dismiss disciplinary charges filed against him by the state commission that enforces ethics and conduct standards for lawyers.
In a motion filed Thursday, Rokita argues that the Indiana Disciplinary Commission’s actions involve a level of retaliation and that its charges against him violate his First Amendment right to free speech, the separation of powers and Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP statute that protects critical speech against legal threats.
“Given the compelling reasons for dismissal, the Commission should not force this Court to clean up the Commission’s mess and incur the risk of having the Commission’s authority limited in all future cases,” the motion states. “The Commission should withdraw the Complaint to help preserve the integrity of the attorney discipline system as a public hearing will only serve to further highlight all the above issues—including the repeated appearances of impropriety by Commission members and staff.”
The Indiana Disciplinary Commission filed three charges against Rokita in January for the unrepentant statements he made immediately after the Indiana Supreme Court publicly reprimanded him in 2023.
He was reprimanded for calling OB-GYN Caitlin Bernard an “activist acting as a doctor” in a TV interview on Fox News and saying his office would be investigating her. The court determined the comments had “no substantial purpose other than to embarrass or burden” Bernard.
The new charges filed against Rokita on Jan. 31 accuse the state’s chief legal officer of backtracking on the disciplinary agreement reached in the Bernard case in which he accepted responsibility for the misconduct.
Almost immediately after the court announced Rokita’s reprimand, he issued a fiery news release that the disciplinary commission says contradicted the disciplinary agreement.
“This retraction of acceptance of responsibility demonstrates that the respondent was not candid with the court when he attested that he admitted he had violated Indiana Professional Conduct Rules,” Adrienne Meiring, executive director of the disciplinary commission, wrote in the new complaint.
The commission also accuses him of providing false statements to the supreme court in a sworn affidavit and of engaging in dishonest conduct when he told the court he accepted responsibility for his misconduct.
Rokita argues in his court filing Thursday that he did not contradict the earlier disciplinary agreement or a signed affidavit.
He acknowledges that his press release issued after the reprimand said: “I deny and was not found to have violated anyone’s confidentiality or any laws. I was not fined.”
Rokita argues that those statements are true because, although he was reprimanded for violating certain lawyer conduct rules, those rules are not statutory laws.
“The commission’s decision to bring a disciplinary action based on differing colloquial and legal interpretations of a term in an attempt to fabricate misrepresentation where none exists is wrong and, frankly, shocking,” Rokita’s dismissal motion states.
The attorney general also takes issue with the commission citing a statement he gave to The Indiana Lawyer last month as more evidence of his failure to accept responsibility for his behavior toward Dr. Bernard.
“One thing that is clear is that the AG did nothing dishonest, illegal, or even wrong, and he will continue to fight for the people of this state no matter how much the Left hates it,” Rokita said in the written statement to The Lawyer.
Rokita argues that it’s clear from the context of The Lawyer’s story on Jan. 7 that he is referring to at least three conduct complaints filed against him by the public after his reprimand and not to the reprimand itself.
His motion for dismissal also accuses the commission of retaliating against him for his proposals to change the state’s lawyer disciplinary rules to more clearly allow for political speech.
The motion repeats his concerns about how the commission’s current chair Peter Rusthoven could be impartial when he authored an article for Politico/Real Clear Politics endorsing the removal of President-elect Donald Trump from the ballot while investigating Rokita for filing the state’s amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court endorsing Trump’s position on that same issue.
Previously, Rusthoven did not respond to The Lawyer’s requests for comment.
The outcome of the heated situation between Rokita and the disciplinary commission now rests with the Indiana Supreme Court.
If the charges aren’t dismissed or Rokita and the disciplinary commission can’t reach a settlement agreement, the state supreme court would appoint a hearing officer to hold a public hearing on the case.
The hearing officer would then issue findings and recommendations to the court, which would decide the ultimate outcome.
Sanctions in lawyer discipline cases can range from a private or public reprimand to a suspension to permanent disbarment.
The case is In the Matter of Theodore E. Rokita, 25S-DI-29.
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