• Government
• State of Indiana
• Indiana Supreme Court

The Indiana Supreme Court annual report is available online. Chief Justice Loretta Rush will speak to media about the report on Tuesday, October 15 at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern) in the Supreme Court conference room (State House Room 319). Press interested in attending should RSVP to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The 60+ page Supreme Court annual report provides information about the work of the court and its affiliated agencies during the fiscal year (July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024). In addition to providing statistics on the cases considered by the court, the report also details the administrative work of the judicial branch.

Some of the information included in the data, milestones, and important projects, include:

• The five justices reviewed more than 735 cases, heard 44 oral arguments, and handed down 47 majority opinions
• 60% of all court opinions were unanimous
• A 23-member Commission on Indiana's Legal Future was established to investigate solutions for the state's attorney shortage
• Over 60% of requests for cameras in trial courts were accepted by local judges
• Users accessed mycase.in.gov a total of 54 million times

• Over 23,000 continuing legal education courses were accredited by the Office of Admissions and Continuing Education
• Courts made 8,100 calls to Language Line for telephone interpreter services
• Nearly 1,200 hours of training was offered to judicial officers and other justice system stakeholders

Past annual reports can be found at courts.in.gov/supreme/annual-reports/.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is co-leading a 14-state lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC’s) new rule that could limit phone calls for inmates and prevent local police from performing one of their most basic functions — investigating and preventing crimes by surveilling inmate calls.

By capping the cost for inmates far below any reasonable level, the FCC will impose new costs on taxpayers and deprive state and local authorities of many safety benefits that come from allowing inmates access to audio and video calls. The FCC’s new rule would likely force some jails to eliminate such services altogether — directly undermining the goal of expanding inmate access to calls that the FCC claims it is pursuing.

“Federal bureaucrats at the FCC are trying to dictate to our local sheriffs and state prison administrators how to manage their prison facilities,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Their unlawful tampering runs a very real risk of making our jails and therefore our communities less safe. That’s why we’re stepping forward to protect the interests of sheriffs, correctional officers, the Indiana Department of Correction and all Hoosiers to challenge this rule and defend common sense.”

Attorney General Rokita’s multistate challenge seeks the reversal of unlawful regulations that, among other things, impermissibly intrude into how state and local prisons and jails provide communication services to inmates. The feds’ new inmate phone call rules threaten to dismantle the monitoring of inmate communications — a valuable investigative tool available to local law enforcement.

Granting inmates’ access to communication services — which include both calls and other online services accessible by tablets, such as legal resources and religious materials — helps reduce violence and other disruptive behavior in inmate populations. By monitoring inmate calls, facilities are also able to identify suicide risks and criminal activity and gather information that can help solve crimes. Providing communication services for inmates has become a vital tool that state and local authorities rely on to keep inmates and the public safe.  

By issuing this rule, the FCC has far exceeded its statutory authority to regulate inmate communication services and ignored important safety and economic considerations that should have guided the agency’s decision making. 

Attorney General Rokita is co-leading this lawsuit with Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin. The 14 states will detail their arguments upon filing their opening brief later this year.

• INDOT

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among Hoosier women, which is why we recognize the month of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

Early detection of breast cancer is critical in improving a patient's chance of survival, which is why I supported a new law this year that improves breast cancer screenings and communication with patients. 

Here in Indiana, a specialty license plate has also been established, with proceeds from this plate benefitting the Indiana Breast Cancer Awareness Trust.

While women are most often diagnosed with breast cancer, men can be diagnosed with the disease as well.

To learn more about breast cancer-related programs in Indiana, click here.

While national defense is primarily the responsibility of the federal government, Indiana Senate Republicans have been working to protect Hoosiers from foreign adversaries like China, Russia and Iran. 

As part of these efforts, the Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS) recently completed a $1.2 billion divestment from Chinese government-controlled assets. 

This effort stems from a new law I supported that required INPRS to divest from these entities because I believe Hoosiers' tax dollars should not be invested in companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. 

This year, I also supported laws that: 

• Protect public colleges from influence by foreign adversaries;
• Ban foreign adversaries from purchasing or leasing agricultural land; and
• Prohibit foreign adversaries from purchasing or leasing any land within a 10-mile radius of a military installation.

For more information about our state's efforts to divest from our foreign adversaries, click here.