Shiloh Counsel filed an amicus curiae brief today in the Indiana Supreme Court addressing whether Indiana law permits an association to pursue a claim based on a concrete injury suffered by one of its members. Click here to read the brief and accompanying motion.

The brief was filed in Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc. v. Duke Energy Indiana, LLC, Case No. 26S-EX-127, in response to the Court’s invitation for amicus briefing on whether Indiana should recognize associational standing.

Joshua Claybourn filed the brief on behalf of himself and fellow amici Jon Laramore, Doris Anne Sadler, and G. Michael Witte. The amici are Indiana attorneys, historians, and former public officials with experience in constitutional law, public law, judicial administration, and Indiana’s legal institutions.

The brief asks the Court to resolve the question under Indiana’s Constitution, history, and precedent rather than import federal standing doctrine wholesale. It argues that Indiana’s constitutional tradition has long permitted representative litigation involving concrete public and collective interests.

Under the limited three-part test urged by the amici, an association may sue only when an identified member has suffered a concrete injury and could sue individually; the interests at stake relate to the association’s purpose; and neither the claim nor the requested relief requires the member’s individual participation.

The brief contends that this test preserves Indiana’s requirement of a genuine injury while allowing an association to present that injury on behalf of its members. Indiana’s Court of Appeals has applied the test for two decades.

The amici take no position on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s interpretation of the clean-energy statute or on the merits of the underlying rate dispute. Their submission addresses only the constitutional and historical basis for associational standing under Indiana law.