The Sellersburg clerk-treasurer who sought to make the town board give her funds for a second deputy clerk lost her appeal after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined state statute gives the legislative body oversight over the number of deputy clerks. The court found state law clearly provides that the clerk-treasurer’s appointment of deputies and employees requires approval of the town legislative body. Click here for the court’s decision in Michelle Miller, Town of Sellersburg Clerk-Treasurer v. Town Board of Sellersburg, Indiana.

Gov. Eric Holcomb appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals after the Monroe Circuit Court denied the governor’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the city of Bloomington over an annexation dispute. Bloomington filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against Holcomb in May, claiming a provision inserted into the state budget specifically targeting the city’s attempts to annex nearly 10,000 acres (including portions of the Cook Medical campus) is unconstitutional. The city pointed out Section 161, which was introduced less than 24 hours before the Legislature approved it, terminates the planned expansion of the municipality’s boundaries and prohibits any future annexation of that area until July 1, 2022. In October, the governor’s motion to dismiss was denied.

In 1938 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Indiana ex rel. Anderson v. Brand that a state can enter into contracts that must be honored under the U.S. constitution, even if that means restricting future legislative options of the state. The issue arose again this month in Elliott v. Board of School Trustees, wherein the 7th Circuit concluded that Indiana could not amend its law that affected tenured teachers because the new law violates the Contract Clause rights of a teacher who had tenure before the law took effect. The holding remains a controversial one because of its practical effect that a legislative body can bind future legislative bodies for close to 100 years and legislation creates a contract that cannot be impaired under the Constitution.