Indiana AG Rokita sues state Supreme Court disciplinary commission, accusing it of harassment

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is suing several current and former members of the state Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission, accusing its members of a multi-year campaign to silence and harass Indiana’s top lawyer.

Rokita said in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that the commission retaliated against him for his “constitutionally protected speech on matters of public concern and for petitioning for a redress of grievances.”

Rokita said in his complaint that he didn’t forfeit his right to free speech when he became attorney general.

“The First Amendment forbids government officials from retaliating against a speaker for protected speech, and it does not permit a disciplinary bureaucracy to be turned into an instrument for punishing an elected official’s participation in public debate,” the lawsuit states.

A spokesperson for the state Supreme Court said Friday that a response to the complaint will be filed into the case according to civil procedure rules. She also noted that Rokita’s office cannot represent the commission in the case as it normally would be required to do by law. She said the commission will retain outside counsel.

Rokita says the commission has “entertained a succession of facially meritless grievances” against him since 2022.

He said in the complaint that these grievances are mostly provoked by his public comments. He argued the commission opened an investigation that ran longer than necessary, declined in the end to bring charges and damaged his reputation in the meantime.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, comes nearly a year after the Indiana Supreme Court approved a conditional agreement between Rokita and the commission and dismissed a second disciplinary complaint filed against him as moot.

According to the court’s order, the parties agreed to the following joint statement: “Using the Indiana Supreme Court’s own words, Respondent affirms that he ‘really meant it’ when he signed the affidavit accepting responsibility for violations of the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct, and that he signed the affidavit voluntarily.”

The order says Rokita made the affirmation to “clarify any real or perceived confusion” that followed the public statements he made after the high court issued a public reprimand against him in 2023 for the comments he made about Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OB-GYN who had told The Indianapolis Star about a medical abortion she performed for a 10-year-old rape victim.

The victim came to Indiana for the abortion because her home state of Ohio prohibited it at that time. Rokita called Bernard an “abortion activist acting as a doctor” for bringing the story to the public’s attention.

The attorney general said in his federal lawsuit that a more recent grievance involving Jess Sampson was the “final straw” that provoked his litigation. The Attorney General’s Office sued Sampson in December alleging in court documents that he repeatedly violated Indiana consumer protection and vehicle merchandising laws.

The Indiana Capital Chronicle previously reported that the lawsuit stemmed from the condition of a used Sea-Doo jet ski sold to Rokita.

Rokita said the commission demanded in late July that he respond to a grievance from Sampson that was generated by artificial intelligence and failed to cite any rules for professional conduct that had been violated.

Rokita said the commission demanded that Rokita respond or face a suspension from practicing law and further discipline.

The attorney general is seeking relief in the Sampson grievance and for any future conduct of the commission. The lawsuit notes that the commission’s actions in the Sampson case was not the first time it handled a grievance against Rokita “in an abusive manner.”

The lawsuit details eight grievances pursued by the commission against Rokita and notes that these cases have been made public even though the commission’s proceedings are confidential.