Advocates of opening Indiana’s adoption records won an emotional first round Wednesday as a Senate panel advanced legislation that for the first time would open birth records of hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers.
Decapitation soon could be punishable by death in Indiana. The state Senate Criminal Law Committee unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for beheadings.
Sen. James Buck is again pushing to increase the mandatory retirement age for Indiana appellate judges.
A state senator says she plans to push for the legalization of medicinal marijuana in Indiana.
Praising the We the People curriculum for instilling a sense of civic responsibility in the next generation, Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long pledged that state funding for the program would continue.
From different communities in different parts of Indiana, two county sheriffs told lawmakers very similar stories about the mentally ill individuals who end up in their jails.
A Republican state senator is heading overseas for military duty in Afghanistan and asking his wife to fill his seat while he is gone.
A longtime Indiana University McKinney School of Law professor will be honored in the General Assembly today for an influential career spanning more than 50 years.
With an impending winter storm taking aim at Indiana this weekend, the Indiana Senate passed a motion Thursday just in case session has to be cancelled Monday.
As the legislative session heads toward its March 14 close, several bills have passed both houses and are on their way to Gov. Mike Pence for his signature.
The resolution seeking to ban same-sex marriage in the Indiana Constitution passed the Senate Monday, meaning the soonest voters may have a say in the matter is 2016.
The Indiana General Assembly has adjourned for the week after working quickly to move bills out of the House of Representatives and Senate by their respective deadlines. The legislators also kept an eye on a winter storm heading toward Indiana Tuesday.
Legislation that would require Marion County Small Claims judges to select among themselves an administrative judge to carry out the duties currently performed by the Marion Circuit judge passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. The committee also is asking for a study committee to look at Small Claims court administration.
Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long announced Thursday morning that House Joint Resolution 3 – which seeks to amend Indiana’s Constitution to ban gay marriage – will be heard by the Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee.
Modest reforms to the derided Marion County township small claims courts are proposed in a bill scheduled to get a committee hearing Wednesday.
Indiana’s Lifeline Law that provides immunity for minors who report dangerous underage intoxication would expand to cover reporting of any medical crisis, sexual assault or crime if a bill that cleared a Senate committee Wednesday is enacted.
Legislation updating Indiana’s expungement law – including language specifying where a petition for expungement must be filed – is now eligible for consideration by the full House. The expungement bill is one of several that moved out of committee Thursday.
Judicial officers would be granted the same ability to carry firearms and immunity as law enforcement officers under a bill introduced by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Study Committee will hold two final meetings in December – Dec. 10 and 19 – to look at funding and sentencing.
Addressing the Indiana House of Representatives, Speaker Brian Bosma encouraged legislators to move forward with the new criminal code and to provide the funding for community corrections programs.