IndyBar: Due Process: Personal, Not Ceremonial

By Lee Christie, Christie Farrell Lee & Bell PC; Raio Krishnayya, Center for Victim and Human Rights

He was on his way home after picking up his child when officers stopped him. They told him his “status had changed.” Within minutes, his child was handed to relatives, and he was gone—taken into custody, without charges, without counsel, and without a hearing. One moment he was part of his community; the next, he had disappeared into a system that offered no answers.

Due process is not ceremonial. It is not theoretical. It is personal. On Constitution Day, it’s worth remembering—it protects the best of us by ensuring it also protects the worst of us. And one day, it may be all that stands between you and the arbitrary exercise of power.

A Lesson from Indiana’s Own History: Ex parte Milligan

Indiana has its own reminder of this truth. In 1864, Lambdin P. Milligan was arrested in Indianapolis and tried before a military commission for conspiring against the Union during the Civil War. He was convicted and sentenced to hang.

Milligan’s politics were indefensible; he sympathized with the Confederacy. But the legal question before the Supreme Court was larger than his views: could a civilian be tried by a military tribunal while civilian courts were open and functioning?

In Ex parte Milligan (1866), the Court answered no. It declared that “The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace.” Even in the darkest hours of national conflict, due process did not disappear. Milligan’s life was spared not because he was right, but because the Constitution applies to all.

Due Process Today

Milligan may seem a distant relic of wartime law, but the principle is alive and urgent today. Consider Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004). Yaser Hamdi, an American citizen, was captured in Afghanistan and detained indefinitely as an “enemy combatant.” The government argued that U.S. courts had no authority to review his confinement.

The Supreme Court disagreed. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that due process is not optional: “A state of war is not a blank check for the President.” Even Hamdi—detained thousands of miles away, accused of fighting against his own country—was entitled to notice of the charges and a fair opportunity to contest them.

Perhaps you are thinking, “I would never be accused of conspiracy against the country or detained as an enemy combatant.” But if the government can hold “the unpopular” without due process, what stops the government from doing the same to you?

Why It Should Matter to All of Us

Constitution Day, September 17, is not about abstract history. It is about whether we believe the rule of law constrains government power in our own lives. It is about whether the parent in a custody dispute, the protester in the street, or the business owner facing regulation will be heard in court before liberty or property is taken away.

The danger of indifference is real. Rights are not lost all at once; they are chipped away when we assume they only apply to others. When we tolerate shortcuts to due process because we dislike the person in the dock, we erode the very shield that one day may be our own.

A Call on Constitution Day – September 17, 2025

When lawyers raise their right hand and swear to uphold the Constitution, it is not an oath to a party or administration. It is a commitment to the idea that liberty demands more than slogans—it demands fairness, process, and law.

On this Constitution Day, let us remember: due process is not ceremonial. It is not theoretical. It is personal. It protects the best of us by ensuring it also protects the worst of us.

And it is worth defending—because one day, it may be all that stands between you and the arbitrary exercise of power.

IndyBar is committed to the Rule of Law, as evidenced during the inaugural Law Day celebration hosted on May 1 where hundreds gathered on the steps of the Federal Courthouse as Judge Sarah Evans Barker readministered the Oath of Attorneys. IndyBar’s Rule of Law Committee is hard at work with events celebrating Constitution Day. Join us at 3 p.m. on September 17 for The State of the American Rule of Law, a CLE program hosted in the Indiana Supreme Court Courtroom with a networking reception to follow. The Rule of Law Committee is also conducting a moderated Community Town Hall on September 17 at Hawthorne Community Center discussing “What is a Right Under the U.S. Constitution?” as well as a Rule of Law Essay Contest for high school students. IndyBar members are actively working at keeping our legal and local communities informed and incentivized on the Rule of Law. You can learn more and register for the CLE by visiting www.indybar.org/constitution.•

Lee Christie is the 2025 President of the Indianapolis Bar Association. Lee is a founding partner of Christie Farrell Lee and Bell where he focuses his practice in the areas of personal injury and wrongful death from auto and truck collisions, medical malpractice, product liability and premises liability where he has jury verdicts as high as $60.2M. Lee is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Leaders Forum of AAJ. He is currently serving a second term on the Indiana Judicial Nominating and Qualifications Commission and has previously served two terms on the Marion County Judicial Nominating Committee.

Raio Krishnayya is an active member of IndyBar’s Rule of Law Committee. A leader in the fields of criminal and crime-victim rights law, immigration law, and nonprofit development and leadership, Krishnayya founded the Center for Victim and Human Rights (CVHR), a nonprofit legal services and educational outreach organization, in 2008. His 20-plus years of experience in criminal and immigration law has served as the backbone of the CVHR’s success in representing crime victims who are otherwise unable to receive legal assistance. In recognition of his accomplishments and in 2016, Krishnayya was awarded the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award for his work as a community leader.