Indiana Court Decisions: Sept. 7-20, 2023
Read the latest Indiana appellate court decisions from the most recent reporting period.
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Company’s repairs of damaged outdoor billboard did not result in sign being ‘relocated,’ IN Supreme Court affirms
A Noblesville ordinance’s language for sign relocation was ambiguous with its usage of “relocate” and “move,” the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed Monday in upholding a trial court’s judgment in favor of an outdoor signage company.
IN Supreme Court finds hospital entitled to partial summary judgment on negligence claim, but not public disclosure, after patient’s diagnosis was posted to social media
A hospital sued after a woman’s diagnosis was mailed to the wrong person and subsequently posted to social media secured a partial victory at the Indiana Supreme Court.
COA: Trial court committed reversible error in not setting case for jury trial
A trial court committed reversible error when it proceeded to a bench trial rather than setting the case for a jury trial after the defendant was discharged from a pretrial agreement, the Court of Appeals of Indiana has ruled.
COA remands for fuller analysis of woman’s Medicaid eligibility
An administrative law judge’s analysis of a woman’s irrevocable trust as it relates to her Medicaid nursing home benefits eligibility was incomplete, the Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled in a Tuesday reversal.
Split IN Supreme Court rules state law limits corporate contributions to super PACs
Indiana election law’s silence on corporate contributions to independent-expenditure political action committees means such contributions are prohibited or otherwise limited, a split Indiana Supreme Court has ruled.
Rokita files suit over alleged manufactured home fraud scheme
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit against three people in Bartholomew County accused of scheming to defraud people seeking installations of manufactured homes.
Congress is moving into crisis mode to avoid a government shutdown
With a government shutdown five days away, Congress is moving into crisis mode as Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces an insurgency from hard-right Republicans eager to slash spending even if it means curtailing federal services for millions of Americans.
Trump argues First Amendment protects him from ‘insurrection’ cases aimed at keeping him off ballot
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump argue that an attempt to bar him from the 2024 ballot under a rarely used “insurrection” clause of the Constitution should be dismissed as a violation of his freedom of speech.
Indianapolis to move about 550 employees to City-County Building
The city of Indianapolis plans to move about 550 workers from satellite locations around the city into the City-County Building by the end of 2024, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office announced Monday.
Keeping up with changing AI is educational challenge
Legal and ethical questions that will arise from the increasing use of artificial intelligence—particularly generative AI that uses existing information to create new content—could test current laws and courts’ ability to untangle the technology.
DCS says discovery production complete in case of 4-year-old who was killed, but director’s email wasn’t searched
Indiana Department of Child Services Director Eric Miller’s email was not part of a batch of documents produced in a case involving a child who was killed after the department placed him in his parents’ home, the director repeated at a contempt hearing.
Seizure of evidence during prolonged traffic stop was constitutional, split COA affirms
An officer’s prolonged traffic stop and a search of a man’s vehicle that detected illegal drugs was justified by reasonable suspicion and did not violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a split Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed Monday.
Teens learn what it’s like to be on a jury through Point Theater production
The two casts of The Point Theater’s “12 Angry Jurors” got the chance to visit a real courtroom and jury deliberation room and learned more about what it’s like to be a real juror in the courtroom.
No ineffective counsel for man who challenged validity of search warrant, split COA affirms
A man who was convicted of Level 6 felony intimidation for making threats against police did not receive ineffective counsel, a split Court of Appeals Indiana has ruled in affirming a post-conviction relief court’s opinion.
Kagan talks code of ethics, dissents, legal writing and more at Notre Dame Forum
In a wide-ranging discussion that featured both laughs and in-depth discussions of the fundamentals of democracy, United States Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Sept. 22 kicked off the 2023-2024 Notre Dame Forum.
Past high-profile trials suggest stress and potential pitfalls for Georgia judge handling Trump case
There will be additional scrutiny and strain that await the four judges overseeing the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump.
AI is on the world’s mind. Is the UN the place to figure out what to do about it?
Just a few years ago, artificial intelligence got barely a mention at the U.N. General Assembly’s convocation of world leaders. But after the release of ChatGPT last fall turbocharged both excitement and anxieties about AI, it’s been a sizzling topic this year.
Absentee ballot application outage frustrates some election officials, leaves others unaffected
For more than two months, Hoosier voters attempting to apply for an absentee ballot online were met with a block of bright red text informing them that the function was down while the state complied with new voter identification requirements.
The Supreme Court will hear a case with a lot of ‘buts’ & ‘ifs’ over the meaning of ‘and’
It’s hard to imagine a less contentious or more innocent word than “and.”
But how to interpret that simple conjunction has prompted a complicated legal fight that lands in the Supreme Court on Oct. 2, the first day of its new term.