Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is publicly demanding the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) defy a valid federal court order with which Beckwith disagrees.
The Republican, who will become Indiana's governor if 70-year-old Gov. Mike Braun is unable to continue in office for any reason, repeatedly posted to X/Twitter Wednesday and Thursday directives commanding DOC to "absolutely ignore" a March 5 order by Evansville-based U.S. District Judge Richard Young.
The judge's order merely continues the preliminary injunction Young issued in September 2024 halting enforcement of House Enrolled Act 1569 (2023) that prohibits DOC from spending any money from any source to provide or facilitate sexual reassignment surgery for incarcerated individuals.
Beckwith appears to have found out about the order after anti-transgender provocatrix Chaya Raichik posted it to her "LibsofTikTok" X/Twitter account and described the judge's order as "insane."
The lieutenant governor apparently agreed by reposting Raichik and adding the message: "Indiana Dept of Corrections MUST absolutely IGNORE this incredibly foolish ruling! DOC, please tell Judge Richard Young to go pound sand. Taxpayers WILL NOT be on the hook to pay for this baby-murderer’s pretend make believe game!"
Beckwith subsequently reiterated his call for the state agency to defy the federal court order in subsequent X/Twitter exchanges with state Rep. Andrew Ireland, R-Indianapolis, and Niki Kelly, editor of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
"Taxpayer funds SHOULD NEVER be used to pay for a Dept of Corrections inmate to receive a sex change! The court got it wrong! I strongly urge the DOC to ignore this egregious ruling and to do what is RIGHT," Beckwith said.
The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment on whether Braun intends to follow the recommendation of his running-mate and openly defy a federal court order.
In contrast, House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, said Thursday while he also disagrees with the judge's decision, "I don't think that we should just randomly ignore court orders."
Senate President Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, likewise distanced himself from Beckwith's call for DOC to outright ignore the judge's order.
"I would hesitate to say that anybody should ignore a judge's ruling. As a lawyer, I don't do that and I don't advise my clients to do that," Bray said.
Beckwith's defiance demand echoes conservative Southern governors of decades ago who led massive resistance to federal court rulings aimed at protecting the civil rights of racial minorities.
In this case, Young said Autumn Cordellioné, 42, suffers from gender dysphoria, which Young identified as a serious medical need, and despite other treatments the state has provided her, Cordellioné requires gender-affirming surgery to prevent a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm.
"Thus, she has demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success in demonstrating that (the Indiana law) denying her gender-affirming surgery violates the Eighth Amendment as it denies her necessary medical care to address a serious medical need," Young said.
Young's order directs DOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold, a former state representative, to take all reasonable actions to secure Cordellioné gender-affirming surgery at the earliest opportunity.
At the same time, Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita is appealing Young's original injunction to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, so Cordellioné probably won't receive gender-affirming surgery until that litigation is resolved by a three-judge appellate panel.
Cordellioné, who was convicted in 2002 of murdering her infant stepdaughter in Evansville when she was known as Jonathan Richardson, also is tentatively scheduled to be released from prison Dec. 29, 2025, while the state's appeal likely still is pending.
This isn't the first time Beckwith has exhibited authoritarian tendencies leading up to and during his two months as Indiana's lieutenant governor, a $194,501 a year job whose few official responsibilities include presiding over the Indiana Senate and supervising the Department of Agriculture.
In November, Beckwith threatened to shut down college newspapers across the Hoosier State after being provoked by an Indiana Daily Student photo illustration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump overlaid with quotations of former Trump administration officials declaring him unfit to hold office, while noting, "He still won."
Beckwith also advised Hoosiers in January not to comply with visitor mask directives implemented by some Indiana hospitals to protect vulnerable patients from the spread of respiratory illnesses because he said "the government and the industrial health care complex...cannot be trusted."
In addition, Beckwith spurred an unsuccessful vote to remove him from the Senate in February after he discarded the chamber's tradition of a neutral presiding officer and instead openly advocated for legislation while overseeing debate on it.
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