Editorial: All who serve as judges should be lawyers
Judges Mark Stoner and Terry Shewmaker explain why a proposed bill would protect Hoosiers’ rights by making sure that law-trained judges preside over all cases in Indiana.
Judges Mark Stoner and Terry Shewmaker explain why a proposed bill would protect Hoosiers’ rights by making sure that law-trained judges preside over all cases in Indiana.
We often think of law enforcement officers and firefighters as first-responder types who venture into situations where others are reluctant to go. We’d like to expand the definition of first responder a bit, and bring your attention to an Indianapolis lawyer who after retiring from his day job years ago decided he wasn’t quite done practicing law.
In our culture, someone accused of a crime gets a vigorous defense to make certain all of the accused person’s constitutional rights are protected. This is as it should be. Those faced with the loss of their liberty or life deserve no less than the best defense that can be put forth.
Here’s to hoping reason and sanity will prevail, but we’re not holding our breath.
An anonymous young lawyer in Indianapolis discusses her anxiety issues and the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program.
It’s a silent and devastating problem going on right under our noses, and it’s going to take courage and a willingness to ask invasive and uncomfortable questions to stop it.
This was one retirement ceremony we were not looking forward to attending, fearing that the gentleman stepping away from the bench would slip away from public life and live quietly with his family, indulging his interests outside the law, while working as a mediator at Van Winkle Baten Rimstidt and senior judging for the Indiana Court of Appeals.
The state still needs to address the elephant in the room.
Here at the newspaper, we don’t like to see anything put the brakes on the sharing of opinions.
A few days after then-U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton ruled in late 2005 in Anthony Hinrichs, et al. v. Brian Bosma, et al., that sectarian prayer could not be used to open legislative sessions, we received a phone call from someone who wanted the judge’s e-mail address and contact information. We declined to give that information.
Casting a ballot in an election ought to be a simple thing for a citizen to do. But there are those who would make it as difficult
as possible for some to exercise their franchise.
We believe the state of Indiana has hit bone with a budget cut instituted earlier this month.
The future is now for the high court.
Those of us on staff here at the newspaper that grew up in Indiana and were of a certain age to pay attention to the news
can likely recall when Judge Sarah Evans Barker was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
In a series of decisions culminating in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., federal courts came to recognize that the
Medial Device Amendments preempted not only traditional products liability claims such as those based on an alleged defect
or implied warranty but also causes of action premised on theories such as consumer fraud.
Judge David J. Dreyer urges the governor to appoint a Notre Dame Law School alum.
We know you have opinions – thoughtful, reasonable ones that would make for great discourse in the newspaper. But getting
you to share them is more difficult than we would like.
Here at the newspaper, we’re big fans of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. But we understand the
need for and exuberance some individuals feel for the Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to
the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Dawn Johnsen deserved the nomination, and definitely was the right woman for the job, but unfortunately partisan vitriol appears to
be worth more in Washington, D.C., than doing the right thing.