Members of the Indiana Supreme Court (from left) are Justice Mark Massa, Justice Steven David, Chief Justice Loretta Rush, Justice Christopher Goff, Justice Geoffrey Slaughter.

Staff Report

Todd Rokita

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is asking the Indiana Supreme Court to order a trial court to stop proceedings in the governor’s lawsuit challenging a new law that allows Indiana legislators to call themselves into a special legislative session.

Gov. Eric Holcomb filed the lawsuit this spring after the Indiana General Assembly overrode his veto of House Enrolled Act 1123, which allows the Legislature to call itself into an “emergency session.”

Rokita’s office on Monday filed papers with the Indiana Supreme Court to stop some of what it considers to be “the gubernatorial overreach manifested in the Holcomb v. Bray lawsuit.”

“We are asking the Supreme Court to stop the executive branch power grab underway by preserving the constitutional protections that are meant to preserve Hoosiers’ individual liberty and that have served Indiana well for more than 100 years,” said Attorney General Todd Rokita. “Allowing the Governor’s lawsuit to continue confers power on the judiciary, the branch of government that, by design, is least representative of the people. This power grab by the Governor and the authority it would give to the courts to interfere with political decisions should scare us all.”

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb

“The Attorney General’s Office was created to enable the state to speak with one voice on legal matters,” said Attorney General Rokita. “The reasons are straightforward: allowing the branches to sue one another, or individual officeholders to do the same, whenever they want, will add significant costs for taxpayers as well as create confusing and unsettled policies for all Hoosiers.”