Articles

Farm feud: CAFO challenge turns to U.S. Supreme Court

Hendricks County families who live with the odor from a nearby 8,000-hog farm for years have lost their nuisance, negligence and trespass claims against the concentrated animal feeding operation. After unsuccessfully seeking relief from the Indiana Court of Appeals and a divided Indiana Supreme Court, they are now turning to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Exercising their right: Women voting in greater numbers than men, but impact at ballot box is limited

As Indiana prepares to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, women are still going to the polls, often in higher numbers than men, and still have diverse political views. In addition, they are galvanized to vote by issues that range from the environment to immigration, health care and pay equity. Yet in 100 years of voting, how much impact have Hoosier women had?

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Web exclusive: Young attorney driven in fight to abolish capital punishment

Attorney Ashley Eve was one of more than a dozen death penalty protesters who claimed that their First Amendment rights were violated when Indiana State Police set up roadblocks that kept capital punishment protestors almost 2 miles away from the federal prison in Terre Haute while three executions took place there last month. Eve was motivated to a career in law by her opposition to the death penalty.

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Giving and taking: Landmark high court LGBTQ employment ruling clouded by ministerial exception expansion

Just as celebrations were starting over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Title VII protections cover transgender workers, another opinion from the nine justices shielded religious organizations from lawsuits by expanding the ministerial exception legal doctrine and injected more energy into potential religious liberty challenges to anti-discrimination laws.

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A brave new chapter: AI tackles legal writing

A well-written opinion or brief can change the course of legal thought, but while other parts of the practice of law have been upended by technology, the physical act of writing remains pretty much a job done by humans. However, new artificial intelligence software appears poised to rewrite the definition of writing.

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Making the best: Adoptive families find new ways to celebrate as in-court ceremonies are called off

With in-person proceedings largely called off, adoptive families have had to adjust their plans. But as long as a case is uncontested, lawyers say judges have been willing to hold final hearings via Zoom or other platforms to give these families a sense of finality. And in some cases, adoptions in the age of COVID-19 have become a cause for community celebration.

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Mom wins federal ruling against Carmel schools in son’s special education case

A Carmel mother is celebrating a federal court ruling that concluding that the public school district had denied her son a free and appropriate education since January 2018 and May 2018, in part by failing to ensure he received his special education and related services. The family attorney says the case sets precedent for parents whose special-needs children rely on individual education plans.

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178 Hoosier law firms received PPP money

Indiana law firms are included among the thousands of Hoosier businesses and nonprofits that have received money through the federal Paycheck Protection Program according to data released Monday by the U.S. Small Business Administration. We have the recipients in a searchable database.

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Family ties: Reunification celebration spotlights families who achieve stability

Although many may be skeptical of parents whose children are removed from their care, statistics show that nearly 67% of Hoosier youths exit foster care and are successfully reunited with their moms and dads. Those stories of resilience inspired the Marion Superior Court Juvenile Division and the Marion County Public Defender Agency to celebrate National Reunification Month for the first time in Indiana.

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