An appeals court has dismissed Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s appeal in his lawsuit against St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman that alleged he hasn’t cooperated with federal immigration enforcement officials. But the matter may not be over with.
In a ruling released Wednesday by a three-judge Indiana Court of Appeals panel, the court remanded the case back to St. Joseph County Superior Judge Jenny Pitts Manier, who ruled for Redman. But they directed her to again dismiss Rokita’s lawsuit, not on its merits but because it’s now moot.
That’s because the Indiana General Assembly this year changed the law in Rokita’s favor, compared to what the law stated when he filed the suit in January 2025, the court found.
For example, the amended state law now restricts a sheriff from limiting communication with ICE based on policies that are “written or unwritten.” Pitts Manier had ruled Rokita failed to state a claim because the alleged policy of not cooperating with ICE was not “written or memorialized.”
The order ends with a footnote saying, “Nothing in this decision precludes the state from pursuing relief from the alleged conduct under current law.”
