Plaintiffs Still Can’t Show Standing to Challenge Ind. ‘Buffer Law,’ Says AG’s Reply

Nexstar, Scripps, Tegna and four other media organizations still can’t demonstrate standing to challenge the constitutionality of Indiana’s “buffer law” because there’s “no credible threat” of the law's being enforced against them, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) said in a reply Friday (docket 1:23-cv-01805) in U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana in further support of his Dec. 1 motion to dismiss their complaint (see 2312040003). The buffer law, HB-1186, makes it a misdemeanor for journalists to come within 25 feet of police officers on active duty. In altering their factual assertions “in a seeming attempt to establish standing,” the media organizations reveal “a recognition of the frailty of purported standing” where the buffer law hasn't “chilled” them, said the AG’s reply. They now “do allege chill,” yet still fail to meaningfully explain how the buffer law affects that chill, it said. Though this “major change in factual assertions is improper” and shouldn’t be permitted, their standing arguments “possess myriad further flaws,” it said. The media organizations “undermine their standing claims through an inadequate attempt to pack loose facts into shifting theories,” it said.