INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) - Reporters shouldn't concern themselves with a new law that prevents anyone from approaching police conducting their duties, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita says.
He defended the law in a motion to dismiss filed Dec. 1 in Indiana federal court, where journalism associations like Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have filed a challenge. They say the law, which is known as the Buffer Law and keeps onlookers to police activity from getting closer than 25 feet, is unconstitutional.
Rokita says the plaintiffs have no standing to bring suit because they have not been subjected to enforcement of the law.
"Nor, as their own examples show, is it likely to be used to target any press member, as it has never been invoked against press member except with extraordinary deference to extremeley belligerant individuals who, while disrupting lawful policy activity, happen to be filming," the motion says.
Plus, the law is already being challenged in another federal court, and that case raises the same issues, Rokita says.
The plaintiffs claim in their suit that Indiana's HB 1186, enacted in April, "unconstitutionally abridges the press' ability" by making it a misdemeanor to approach police activity after they have been ordered to stop.
They allege the law criminalizes peaceful and nonobstructive news-gathering as well as violates the First Amendment. The plaintiffs further allege Indiana's law grants law enforcement officers limitless direction to prevent journalists from getting close enough to document the way officers perform their duties in public places.