LaGrange County deputy prosecutor William R. Walz IV has been appointed to the LaGrange Circuit Court. Gov. Eric Holcomb selected Walz to succeed Judge J. Scott VanDerbeck, who retired June 1. VanDerbeck plans to serve as a senior judge and work as a mediator.
Senate Democrats intensified their fight Tuesday over documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s stint as staff secretary at the White House, pursuing a paper trail on his views of key issues that played out during the George W. Bush administration.
Senior judge Thomas W. Webber Sr., will serve as judge pro tem in Lake Superior Court, Civil Division 3, replacing Judge Elizabeth Tavitas upon her appointment to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Tavitas is scheduled to be sworn in on the appellate bench next week.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he recognizes that gun, drug and gang violence “has plagued all of us.” Still, he believes the Constitution limits how far government can go to restrict gun use to prevent crime.
When the White House nominated Hoosier Damon Leichty to a federal district judgeship, it was the second time the Trump Administration has chosen an attorney working at Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Indiana to fill a judicial vacancy.
As the U.S. Senate gears up for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings and citizens continue discussing the potential impact the D.C. Circuit judge could have on the U.S. Supreme Court, one issue continually rises to the top of the dialogues: abortion rights and the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade.
Lake Superior Judge Elizabeth Tavitas was on the bench on July 18 when her phone rang with a message that would change her career. It was a call from Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, informing her that she had been selected as Indiana’s next Court of Appeals judge.
The successor to United States Supreme Court Justice Kennedy may determine the fate of the Affordable Care Act, according to Fran Quigley, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Health and Human Rights Clinic Director.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has named Lake Superior Judge Elizabeth Tavitas as the next member of the Indiana Court of Appeals. Holcomb selected Tavitas from a pool of three finalists: Tavitas, St. Joseph Superior Judge Steven Hostetler and Fort Wayne attorney David C. Van Gilder.
Democrats opposing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination are seizing on remarks he made in 2016 saying he would like to put the “final nail” in a Supreme Court precedent upholding an independent counsel law as constitutional. Republicans are pushing back, saying Kavanaugh’s comment is being distorted.
The heated debate over how Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would vote on the Affordable Care Act might not matter. As long as five past defenders of the health care law remain on the nation’s highest court, the odds tilt in favor of it being allowed to stand. Some Democrats are warning that President Donald Trump’s designee could spell doom for the statute, even as some conservatives are portraying Kavanaugh as sympathetic to former President Barack Obama’s landmark legislation.
An Allen County superior court judge will retire at the end of this year, prompting the Allen Superior Court Judicial Nominating Commission to begin the process of selecting his replacement. The vacancy will occur in December when Judge John F. Surbeck, Jr. retires from his position in the Allen Superior Court Criminal Division.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s opponents are digging through documents at President George W. Bush’s library in Texas and other repositories around the country looking for anything that could help derail his nomination. The trail of documents is extensive, as Kavanaugh spent five years in the Bush White House and 12 years as a federal judge.
Damon R. Leichty, partner in the South Bend office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, has been nominated to serve as a judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, potentially filling the last empty seat in the federal judiciary in Indiana. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Leichty will fill the vacancy created when Judge Robert L. Miller, Jr., took senior status in January 2016.
Indiana’s state courts have established a website with information about two Indiana appellate judges facing retention on the November ballot. Voters will vote yes or no on retaining Indiana Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey G. Slaughter and Indianapolis Court of Appeals Second District Judge Robert R. Altice, Jr. in the November 2018 general election.
Before his Senate confirmation hearing, President Donald Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court will need to provide information about his past experience investigating President Bill Clinton and working for President George W. Bush. Requests for that information are included in questionnaires sent to Brett Kavanaugh by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, who will lead the confirmation hearing.
Democratic senators from Connecticut and Michigan on Friday announced opposition to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, saying Brett Kavanaugh’s judicial record clearly shows that he would limit access to health care and curtail environmental protections.
The next Supreme Court justice will join the bench at a time when the public has more confidence in the high court than in Congress or the presidency. A Gallup survey in June found 37 percent of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the court, while another 42 percent have “some” confidence. Only 18 percent have little or no confidence in the court.
Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is the embodiment of the Republican legal establishment: an Ivy Leaguer who worked for the justice he has been nominated to replace, investigated a Democratic president, served in a Republican White House and now is an influential member of what is often called the second-most powerful court in the country.
President Donald Trump on Monday night nominated conservative District of Columbia Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States.