Statements from city attorneys that conservative groups would not run afoul of local ordinances preventing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people don’t reassure those groups, an attorney representing them said Wednesday.
“It is no comfort to the plaintiffs that counsel tells us not to worry, that it doesn’t apply,” Jim Bopp, a Terre Haute attorney known for successfully arguing Citizens United, said during a hearing in Hamilton County Superior Court.
“They can change their mind tomorrow. There’s nothing we can do in enforcing their assurances.”
Bopp is representing the Indiana Family Institute, American Family Association of Indiana and Indiana Family Action in those groups’ suit challenging local ordinances in Bloomington, Indianapolis, Carmel and Columbus and the “fix” to the state’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Bloomington and the other cities are arguing that the conservative groups have neither a ripe claim nor the standing needed to bring the case against the human rights ordinances.
Thomas Cameron, an assistant city attorney for Bloomington, said the plaintiffs’ legal complaint is based only on abstract possibilities.
The groups argue in a pre-enforcement challenge that the city’s ordinance is preventing them from offering programs in Bloomington because they would exclude people who don’t share their beliefs about traditional marriage.