For the second year in a row, a legislative push for an End of Life Options Act failed to gain traction in the Indiana Legislature, disheartening advocates. Opponents argue such legislation would create a slippery slope toward euthanasia.
Fourteen days after rallying on the third floor of the Indiana Statehouse to cheer, applaud and push the Legislature into passing a hate crime bill this session, advocates were stunned the measure failed last week to even get a committee vote.
The IndyBar Legislative Committee, co-chaired this year by Lawren Mills of Ice Miller LLP and Mindy Westrick of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, provides weekly Bill Watch reports throughout the session, which highlight progress and recent actions taken on bills being monitored by the association.
Hoosiers are one step closer to having unrestricted access to cannabidiol, or CBD, oil after the Indiana Senate passed a bill that would allow CBD use by all Indiana residents, not just those with certain illnesses.
A mistake included in a law approved last year prohibiting deer hunters from using rifles on public property would be fixed under a bill approved by the Indiana House.
The fees for Indiana’s lifetime handgun permits would be eliminated under a proposal endorsed by the Indiana House.
The Indiana Legislature is poised to allow anyone to purchase and use a cannabis-derived extract believed to have therapeutic benefits, following a key vote by the state Senate on Monday.
A proposal that would have forced government mergers on about 300 small Indiana townships has died in the Legislature without a vote.
Hundreds of Indiana’s least-populated townships face forced mergers with their neighbors in what would be the most significant overhaul of the local governments since a gubernatorial commission called for their elimination a decade ago.
An Indiana Senate panel has advanced a bill that would allow churches to let people to carry guns in more circumstances. The measure by Republican Sen. Jack Sandlin of Indianapolis was approved 5-2 Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A bill that would overhaul Indiana’s civil forfeiture framework has passed the Indiana Senate. The legislation is in response to a federal court ruling that struck down part of Indiana’s civil forfeiture statute as unconstitutional.
Serious sex offenders who attend church on a property that also houses an educational institution would be restricted in the amount of time they can spend at that church through a bill that passed an Indiana Senate committee Tuesday.
A bill expanding the Indiana Attorney General’s ability to intervene in certain settlements that do not involve constitutional issues cleared a Statehouse committee Monday on a party-line vote. The measure advances to the full Senate.
An Indiana legislative report estimates state and local governments would lose nearly $11 million a year in revenue under the proposed elimination of fees for lifetime handgun permits.
Indiana's legal age for buying tobacco products would increase from 18 to 21 under a bill backed by a House panel.
Before 2014, it was a cut-and-dry issue: fixed-sentence plea agreements meant an offender would serve out the terms of their plea, with no chance to change it. But after 2014 legislation and a 2016 Indiana Court of Appeals decision, the Indiana Supreme Court must now decide whether such agreements may be modified.
Gov. Eric Holcomb on Friday extended the moratorium on seizures of CBD oil from retailers’ shelves — as well Indiana State Excise Police’s education period on products derived from cannabis — while lawmakers consider bills regulating those products.
A long-discussed civil forfeiture reform bill has cleared its first hurdle in the Indiana statehouse. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday passed Senate Bill 99, which tightens due process procedures when prosecutors seek to confiscate property allegedly connected with crimes.
As judicial resources continue to be stretched thin across Hoosier courtrooms, the Indiana Senate has approved two measures that would provide relief for two Indiana counties.
When a court accepts a fixed-sentence plea agreement, prosecutors and defenders alike say the long-standing practice has been for courts to uphold the exact terms of that sentence, absent an agreement between the parties. A recent Indiana Court of Appeals ruling, however, has seemingly put an end to that practice, leading to both a legislative and judicial review of the sentencing issue.