The Indiana Court of Appeals gave its blessing Monday to a 2024 state law that retroactively terminates a long-running lawsuit filed by the city of Gary that seeks to hold gun manufacturers and retailers responsible for the costs of gun violence in the Steel City.
In a 3-0 decision, the appellate court determined House Enrolled Act 1235 passes constitutional muster, and the Gary lawsuit, which was originally filed in 1999, must be dismissed.
"Unfair as it may appear, the Legislature can legally do exactly what it did in this case, and we cannot second-guess its public policy determinations in this regard," said Chief Judge Robert Altice Jr. on behalf of the appeals court.
Gary is expected next year to ask the Indiana Supreme Court, the state's highest judicial body, to reverse the Court of Appeals ruling.
What the Republican-controlled General Assembly did was prohibit Gary, and every other local unit of government in the Hoosier State, from ever holding gun companies legally responsible for the design, manufacture, import, export, distribution, advertising, marketing, sale or use of their products — whether lawful or unlawful — retroactive to Aug. 27, 1999, or shortly before Gary filed its initial lawsuit.
Instead, the statute declares only the Indiana attorney general has the legal authority to sue gun companies, and Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita has made clear that will probably never happen so long as Rokita holds office.
"This result helps to ensure that firearms remain available to law-abiding citizens, preventing a single city or handful of cities from using lawsuits to force changes to the way they are sold. Our office will continue defending your constitutional rights and keeping firearms accessible to responsible, law-abiding citizens," Rokita said following the court ruling.
This was the second time state lawmakers attempted to halt the Gary lawsuit by changing the Indiana Code to protect gun companies.
Lake Superior Judge John Sedia last year rejected the gun company defendants' motions for judgment on the pleadings after finding the new statute violated Gary's vested rights and constitutional guarantees in reaching a definitive outcome to its litigation.
Sedia said the Legislature was not permitted to take another shot at ending Gary's lawsuit after the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in 2019 it could continue, despite the 2015 enactment of a separate, retroactive statute focused on eliminating it.
The appeals court overturned Sedia's assertion it would constitute "manifest injustice" to end the Gary lawsuit after more than a quarter-century of work by Indiana's courts. Altice said no litigant is entitled to have state law frozen in time for the duration of their lawsuit.
Altice also concluded the statute was not impermissible special legislation because it applies to all localities, even though Gary is the sole city impacted.
He additionally denied Gary's claim that the Legislature was infringing on the power of the judiciary because the statute "falls squarely within the legislative prerogative to determine public policy."
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