Year in Review: Honorable mentions

While the “top stories” of each year are usually easier to identify, there are always other stories that, while perhaps not as high-profile, are equally as important to our readers. Here are five such stories from 2023.

Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, et al. v. Talevski, 21-806

This story reached its climax in 2023, but we’d been reporting on it for two years prior.

In case you need a recap: The family of Gorgi Talevski filed a federal lawsuit after he was chemically restrained while living at the Valparaiso Care and Rehabilitation nursing home, which is owned by the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County. He was later dropped as a patient and involuntarily moved to a different facility.

The defendants secured a dismissal in the district court, and the case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in November 2022. Then on June 8, SCOTUS handed down an 8-1 decision holding that the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act creates individually enforceable rights — meaning the Talevski family’s case against HHC could proceed.

Applying U.S.C. § 1983 to the case, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, “The FNHRA provisions at issue unambiguously create §1983-enforceable rights, and the Court discerns no incompatibility between private enforcement under §1983 and the remedial scheme that Congress devised.”

Civics education

Beginning in the spring 2024 semester, Indiana’s sixth-grade students will be required to take a one-semester civics course. In the lead-up to that, the Indiana Bar Foundation and the Court of Appeals of Indiana have been working to help Hoosier teachers prepare to educate the next generation of voters while also increasing civic literacy more broadly.

On April 13, the Indiana Bar Foundation hosted a first-of-its-kind civics summit that convened leaders from government, education, business and the law. The goal was to create a coalition to continue the momentum for civics education in Indiana — a group now known as the Indiana Civics Coalition.

Then in September, the Court of Appeals hosted “Behind the Curtain: The Judicial Branch,” a daylong program for educators to specifically learn about the state’s judiciary. The program featured a look at the workings of the appellate court, plus ideas on how to teach civics to middle schoolers.

“We’re really excited to try something different other than just an academic, have a professor tell you things,” Tim Kalgreen, director of civic education for the bar foundation, told teachers attending the event. “We wanted to embed you in government, so you actually got to experience government.”

More from Year in Review: Top 10 stories

Banning physician noncompetes

Indiana lawmakers in 2023 passed Senate Enrolled Act. 7, a bill that bans noncompete agreements for physicians effective July 1.

The law — authored by Rep. Justin Busch, R-Fort Wayne — has already been the subject of litigation.

In July, Dr. David Lankford sued his former employer, Lutheran Medical Group LLC, alleging it was interfering with his attempts to practice medicine at another health care system in Fort Wayne. Lankford had terminated his employment agreement with Lutheran “for cause” in January — a move that, under SEA 7, made the noncompete provision in his employment agreement unenforceable.

The Allen Superior Court granted a temporary restraining order against Lankford’s noncompete in August, then entered a preliminary injunction in September. However, the judge’s ruling didn’t actually apply the new state statute.

“Lutheran attempts to bar Dr. Lankford from participating in the spectrum of medical practice during the one-year noncompete period,” Judge Craig Bobay wrote. “The Court concludes that the noncompetition provision’s restriction on activity is overbroad and unreasonable.”

More from Year in Review: What you read

Marijuana: Legalization coming to Indiana?

Even as each of Indiana’s surrounding states have enacted laws to legalize medicinal, or even recreational, marijuana use, Indiana government leaders have continued to reject legalization efforts in the Hoosier State. But that hasn’t stopped advocates from continuing the conversation.

In the 2023 session alone, lawmakers from both parties filed 13 cannabis-related bills — more than in any previous year, according to Indianapolis Business Journal. One of those bills — House Bill 1297, which would have decriminalized possession of two ounces of marijuana or less — even made history by getting a legislative hearing.

Meanwhile in this year’s November elections, Ohioans voted in favor of legalizing recreational use of the drug. That once again prompted the question: Will Indiana make any moves toward legalization in 2024?

“I have to hold out hope that there’s a 50-50 chance that a bill works its way through committee,” Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, told Indiana Lawyer.

More from Year in Review: Features, obits and discipline

Juvenile justice reform

Conversations are continuing both in Indiana and nationwide about how to best handle juveniles who are in the criminal justice system — and how to keep them from ever getting into the system in the first place.

In Indiana, lawmakers in 2023 passed Senate Enrolled Act 464, which establishes that an adult criminal court has jurisdiction over a person who is currently at least 21 but who committed an offense as a minor, as long as the offense could have been waived to adult court. The juvenile court has jurisdiction over an offender if the offense couldn’t have been waived.

Hoosier lawmakers also passed Senate Enrolled Act 415, which provides that a statement made by a juvenile during a custodial interrogation in response to a materially false statement from a law enforcement officer is inadmissible in court, unless certain exceptions apply.

Meanwhile in Marion County, a juvenile delinquency pilot program is showing positive early results in its efforts to reduce the number of cases approved for filing in the juvenile delinquency system, and to reduce the number of youths ordered into secure detention at initial or detention hearings.

And nationally, new data suggest that juvenile incarceration is trending down amid fewer arrests and more diversion efforts.

“I think we’re doing a much better job of connecting with youth and their parents as soon as possible,” Jill Johnson of the Marion County Public Defender Agency said.•