• By Marilyn Odendahl, The Indiana Citizen

• At the conclusion of last week’s robing ceremony that formally welcomed Judge Stephen Scheele as the newest member of the Court of Appeals of Indiana, a “thank you” was offered to former Gov. Eric Holcomb, who during his two terms in office had an unprecedented impact on the state’s judiciary.

  Scheele was the 118th judge out of a record 120 appointed by Holcomb. Tapped in December as Holcomb’s last appellate selection, Scheele was sworn in on Jan. 8, just a few days before Gov. Mike Braun was inaugurated, and he has been working on the Court of Appeals ever since.

  “In just a short time, he already feels like a part of our family,” Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Altice said of Scheele. “He’s open, he’s fun loving, he’s kind, he’s a collegial person, he’s a true team player. We like him and we like working with him, so thank you, Gov. Holcomb.”

  The robing ceremony filled the Indiana Supreme Court courtroom in the Statehouse and overflowed into the House chamber, where the onlookers watched a livestream of the event. Scheele’s robing brought federal and state jurists, attorneys and court staff from his home of Lake County, family, colleagues, and even some friends from childhood. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith was also in attendance.

  A handful of people gave brief remarks about Scheele, praising him as an attorney and community member. Lake County Superior Court Magistrate Judge Timothy Ormes, Scheele’s former law partner, said the new Court of Appeals judge has performed extraordinary work in his legal career and has created “many more ripples of hope that he has sent forth through his ideals, actions and his fight for justice.”

  Scheele then stood with his wife and their son and daughter as Altice administered the oath of office.

  Neither Holcomb nor Braun was at the robing ceremony, but both Republicans loomed large over the special event. Holcomb made an unprecedented number of judicial appointments, and Braun will be filling the judicial vacancies that open in the next four years. Like Holcomb, Braun is not an attorney and has no legal training.

  Although jurists can step down from the bench at any time, Indiana requires Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges to retire when they reach 75. Braun will have, at least, two picks since appellate judges Paul Mathias and Elaine Brown will hit their retirement age in 2028 and 2029, respectively. None of the Indiana Supreme Court justices will turn 75 in the next four years.

  Scheele’s elevation to the Court of Appeals was actually the second time he had been appointed to the bench by Holcomb. In 2019, the former governor picked Scheele to fill a vacancy on the Lake County Superior Court.

  

  As a trial court judge, Scheele helped train new Indiana judges on civil law, reading every single civil case that was before the appellate court. He was lauded, in particular, for slashing the backlog of cases that were pending on his Superior Court’s docket from 4,171, when he was appointed in mid-2019, to 1,501 at the end of 2024, a 66.4% reduction.

  Speaking at the robing ceremony, Joe Heerens, who served as general counsel for Holcomb, quoted the former governor’s remarks when he selected Scheele for the Court of Appeals. Holcomb had described Scheele as “the total package” and said he is a person of immense integrity, intelligence and a thoughtful leader, who’s “commitment to the rule of law and justice will continue to serve his fellow Hoosiers with distinction.”

  Holcomb set an extraordinary record of filling judicial vacancies in the state courts. Of his total 120 appointments, the former governor selected the current Tax Court judge, eight of the 15 Court of Appeals judges and two of the five Supreme Court justices, according to Heerens. The record includes a bit of a caveat in that Indiana Justice Derek Molter is counted twice, since he was appointed by Holcomb to the Court of Appeals in October 2021 and then selected for the Supreme Court in June 2022.

  Nearly half of the total Court of Appeals and Supreme Court benches, and essentially a third of all judges in the state, were appointed by Holcomb, Heerens said.

  “If you do the math, that’s a new judge being appointed (on average) every three and a half weeks throughout the entirety of his eight-year governorship,” Heerens said of Holcomb. “He always took the responsibility very seriously. He felt it was one of the most important things that the governor can do in service to our state and its people.”

  

  Hints about Braun’s judicial values

  While Braun has yet to create his own record of judicial appointments, he has some familiarity with the gravitas and responsibility of selecting judges.

  Braun served in the U.S. Senate from 2019 through 2024, during which time, he participated in vetting and recommending individuals to Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden for federal judgeships in Indiana. Former Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter was Braun’s lead on judicial appointments and regularly interviewed federal judicial nominees, according to someone knowledgeable of the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

  Carter was at Scheele’s robing ceremony, but he declined to speak to a reporter for The Indiana Citizen, referring questions to Braun’s office. The governor’s media team did not follow through on requests for an interview or comments about the qualities Braun will be looking for in his judicial appointments to state courts.

  Patrick Price, general counsel for Braun, spoke during the robing ceremony but did not specify the qualities or abilities that the governor would value and want in any judges he appoints in the coming years. Price praised Scheele for “ensuring litigants received the attention their cases deserved” and said the new appellate judge “consistently embodied, throughout his career, intelligence, fairness and, above all, a deep empathy for the people he serves.”

  While he was on Capitol Hill, Braun voted to confirm every individual nominated to the U.S. District Court in the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana and the Indiana seats on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He helped to confirm Judges  Gretchen Lund and Cristal Brisco to the Northern Indiana District Court, and Judge Matthew Brookman to the Southern Indiana District Court as well as Judges Thomas Kirsch, Joshua Kolar and Doris Pryor to the 7th Circuit.

  Also, Braun voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, when she was nominated by Trump to the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett, a graduate and former professor at Notre Dame Law School, was serving in an Indiana seat on the 7th Circuit, when she was picked to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died in September 2020.

  Braun, along with Indiana’s senior U.S. Sen. Todd Young, a fellow Republican, introduced Barrett to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at the start of her confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court in October 2020.  Calling her a “legal titan who drives a minivan,” Braun noted that, unlike most of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, Barrett was from the Midwest and she had a law degree from Notre Dame, rather than Harvard or Yale. Also, he said, she exhibited Midwestern values of faith, family, community and respect for the law.

  “I immediately supported Judge Barrett’s nomination, not only because she is a highly qualified jurist, but because she’s proven, both on and off the bench, that she has a decency, fundamental respect for our country and its Constitution to serve honorably,” Braun told the committee.

  Braun, a Catholic, also noted the questions that were floating about how much Barrett’s Catholic beliefs would influence her judicial rulings. He dismissed those concerns, saying the nominee had been clear that judges should not try to align the legal system with the church’s moral teachings.

  “Faith is very important to most Americans, and I agree that faith should be a key word in Judge Barrett’s confirmation, but I believe the most important question of faith should be, ‘Is she willing to faithfully interpret the Constitution?’” Braun told the Senate committee. “Judge Barrett’s record shows that she will. Throughout her nearly 100 written opinions on the appellate court, Judge Barrett has proven that she is a strong constitutional originalist who will not cut the American people out of their own government by treating the Supreme Court as a third chamber of Congress.”

  

  The judiciary’s fundamental mission

  As governor, Braun will not directly nominate individuals to serve as Court of Appeals judges or Supreme Court justices. Indiana uses the merit selection process, relying on the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission to interview applicants and then recommend three of them to fill any vacancies on the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, or Tax Court.

  Braun, like the governors before him, will be limited to choosing only from the three names presented to him. If he declines to appoint one of the three, the chief justice will then make the pick.

  The nominating commission is comprised of seven members: the chief justice, three attorneys and three non-attorneys. With the governor given the power to appoint the non-attorneys, Braun will have the opportunity to fill all three of those slots, since their individual terms will be expiring at the end of 2025, 2026 and 2027.

  Heerens, Holcomb’s general counsel, outlined the process that was developed in 2017 for helping the former governor select judges. He told the crowd at the robing ceremony that Holcomb looked for a candidate who was bright, had a great legal mind, was highly experienced, had a strong, impeccable reputation, and was a pillar of integrity as well as being “collaborative, collegial and committed absolutely to the rule of law.” Also, as part of the vetting process, he said, the finalists for court vacancies would be asked about their judicial philosophy and, in particular, their view of originalism, as championed by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

  Holcomb wanted jurists who would be “fair, just and serve with honor and distinction,” Heerens said. “He also wanted appointees who are humble, open to innovation, change and new ideas that could add to and further improve our judicial system, and who are active, in some important way, outside of the courthouse.”

  During his speech at the robing ceremony, Scheele called attention to the trial courts and “heavy lifting” they do. He said the courts are delivering speedy and fair justice, as they handle a large variety of cases from routine traffic and small-claims matters to complex, class-action lawsuits and tragic criminal cases.

  “I loved being a trial judge,” Scheele said. “I loved that my job was, every day, to just do the right thing, and, fundamentally, isn’t that the mission of our judiciary—to do the right thing?”

  This article was published by TheStatehouseFile.com through a partnership with The Indiana Citizen, a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed, engaged Hoosier citizens.

  Marilyn Odendahl has spent her journalism career writing for newspapers and magazines in Indiana and Kentucky. She has focused her reporting on business, the law and poverty issues.

Attorney General Todd Rokita today issued the following response after attending Governor Mike Braun’s announcement of Executive Orders to ‘Make Indiana Healthy Again’ and a working lunch with the Governor, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Speaker of the House Todd Huston:

“Indiana is now going to lead in the movement to Make America Healthy Again! It was great to be at the landmark announcement today where the governor signed several executive orders aimed at improving the state’s health and well-being. These orders are the definition of Hoosier common sense.

“It was also an honor to have Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz here to stand with us as necessary changes are being made to fix the chronic health issues we are facing. Hoosiers in large numbers support the MAHA movement, and the promises that were made are now being kept thanks to the Trump and Braun administration.

Secretary Kennedy is exactly right when he said a healthy child can have 1000 dreams, but a sick kid can only have 1. We owe it to our children, our most precious assets, to give them access to nutritious foods and we owe parents transparency to empower them to make healthy choices.”