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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowJustices will waste little time getting to high-profile cases when they hear a new slate of oral arguments after Labor Day. The Indiana Supreme Court has scheduled 20 arguments beginning Sept. 5 and continuing for the next few months.
The oral argument calendar may be viewed here.
First up is the Rockport coal-gasification appeal in which a divided Indiana Court of Appeals voided the Indiana Finance Authority’s contract for the sale and purchase of substitute natural gas that would be produced at the plant proposed in Gibson County on the Ohio River.
Indiana Gasification LLC’s parent company, Leucadia National Corp., announced it had suspended work on the Rockport site after lawmakers passed and Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation that left the matter largely for the court to decide and added the likelihood of a new round of regulatory review even if the court finds the contract valid. The suit, Indiana Gas Company , Inc. v. Indiana Finance Authority, 93S02-1306-EX-407, is set for oral argument at 9 a.m. Sept. 5.
The following Thursday, the court will hear oral argument to determine if it will grant transfer in a case that has attracted national interest from First Amendment advocates.
Arguments in Daniel Brewington v. State of Indiana, 15A01-1110-CR-550, are set for 9 a.m. Sept. 12. Brewington, a blogger in Dearborn County, continues to serve a sentence at the Department of Correction imposed in 2011 for online rants and alleged threats he posted about a judge who stripped him of custody of his children.
Another case regarding online comments will come before the court on Sept. 26. The court will hear an appeal of Indiana Newspapers, Inc. v. Jeffrey M. Miller, et al., 49S02-1305-PL-311. Miller has asked The Indianapolis Star to produce the identity of an online commenter who posted allegedly defamatory comments about Miller, a former Junior Achievement executive. A Marion Superior Court ordered the Star to provide identifiers, and a divided Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal.
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