U.S. District Court Judge Damon Leichty, of the Northern District of Indiana, ruled against the ACLU of Indiana, Friday, in its case arguing that Indiana’s new 25-foot “encroachment” law violates citizen-journalists’ constitutional right to observe and record police.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in August 2023 on behalf of Donald Nicodemus, a citizen journalist from South Bend. South Bend police enforced the new law against Nicodemus to prevent him from getting close enough to record them.
“We’re obviously disappointed in this decision, as we believe this new law gives unbridled discretion to law enforcement officers and invites content and viewpoint-based discrimination,” said Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana. “With this ruling, police officers will continue to have unchecked authority to prohibit citizens from approaching within 25 feet of the officers to observe their actions, even if the actions of the citizens are not and will not interfere with the police.”
The new law went into effect July 1st, 2023, and prohibits a person from knowingly and intentionally approaching within 25 feet of a law enforcement officer after that person has been ordered to stop.
1 comment
The ACLU is still a trashbag organization, and the judge was right in this case. The distance was set at 25′ for good reasons. 25′ is the distance that an unarmed attacker becomes a threat, and most modern phones can easily record at 25′ anyway.