Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The Indiana Supreme Court has put on hold an injunction that would allow U.S. Senate candidate John Rust to appear on the Indiana Republican primary ballot in May.
The justices issued an order Thursday staying the injunction against Indiana Code § 3-8-2-7(a)(4), which Rust had challenged as a violation of the federal and state constitutions.
The order does not break down the justices’ votes or explain their rationale, but instead says a majority of the court voted to stay the injunction “pending this Court’s forthcoming opinion.”
The case — Diego Morales, et al. v. John Rust, 23S-PL-371 — went before the justices on Monday.
The state was appealing after Rust — who is running to take Sen. Mike Braun’s seat as Indiana’s junior senator — obtained an injunction against the law in Marion Superior Court.
The statute provides that a candidate who wants to appear on a party’s ballot must have pulled that party’s ballot in the last two primary elections in which the candidate voted, or must have the backing of the local party chair.
Rust met neither qualification: He did not vote in the Republican primary in 2020 or 2012, and the Jackson County Republican Party chair declined to certify him to appear on the GOP primary ballot.
That prompted Rust’s lawsuit, filed last September.
In December, the Marion Superior Court ruled that the statute violated the First and 14th Amendments.
The state appealed directly to the Supreme Court under Appellate Rule 4(A)(1)(b), which gives the Indiana Supreme Court mandatory and exclusive jurisdiction over appeals of final judgments that declare a state statute unconstitutional.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.