Indiana Supreme Court budget proposal highlights security need

Better security to handle growing threats to Indiana judges highlights the state Supreme Court’s budget proposal for 2028 and 2029.

The high court wants $7 million in additional funding in the state’s next two-year budget cycle, including $3 million for a new fund that can improve courthouse security and offer additional security measures for judges across the state.

“The need is immediate,” Chief Justice Loretta Rush wrote in a letter to the state budget director summarizing the budget request. “Violent threats against Indiana judicial officers, including threats against me, have increased in frequency and intensity over the past year.”

Several individuals are currently set to stand trial for the January shooting of Tippecanoe County Judge Steven Meyer and his wife at their home. Investigators accused defendant Raylen Ferguson of acting in concert with defendant Thomas Moss, a Lafayette man with a felony case pending in Meyer’s court.

In May, charges were filed against a man who sent a threatening letter to Rush and her family, stating that they would be, “murdered, maimed, mutilated, tortured, torn-to-pieces and strung up to the rafters,” according to court documents.

Rush presented the court’s budget request during a State Budget Committee hearing on Monday.

The court security fund is a new addition to the budget request, born out of a need for additional security measures that protect courthouses and judges.

A recent survey of 200 Indiana trial judges noted in the budget request found that 64% of respondents have been personally threatened with violence. Twenty percent of respondents said a family member has received threats because of their relation to the judge.

The additional funding would strengthen protection for court staff, litigants and visitors throughout the states’ courthouses and expand access to security equipment and technology. Funding also would provide matching grants for courthouse security improvements and reimburse home security measures for trial court judges.

The funding would also support Senate Bill 291, which was signed into law earlier this year. The law allows certain individuals, including judges, to request the sealing of certain personal information like home addresses and phone numbers.

The court also is seeking a $1.4 million increase to the judicial branch’s technology fund to implement certain cybersecurity priorities.

It wants $1.3 million for the restoration of the judicial branch’s primary operating fund to its 2025 fiscal year appropriation level and a $1.4 million increase to help implement key adult guardianship oversight recommendations.

Less than 1% of the State General Fund supports the supreme court’s operations, according to this fiscal year’s budget request. The request would cover the supreme court, Court of Appeals, Tax Court, public defenders’ office and Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council.

For the 2025-2027 budget cycle, the court requested $6 million in additional funding, and the state appropriated a total of $590.6 million.