Bloomington’s battle to continue annexation hearings could be decided by Thursday morning.
County residents against annexation and city attorneys pleaded their case at Wednesday morning’s hearing with Judge Nathan Nikirk.
The city says it’s dropping its constitutional suit for areas 1A and 1B near the southwest part of the city to pursue an annexation trial. Those areas were not able to void annexation through remonstration but did reach the threshold to appeal in court.
The city filed a lawsuit against Monroe County Auditor Catherine Smith in March of 2022 for counting remonstrance waivers in connection to a 2019 state law. If the court found that law unconstitutional, it would flip most areas to be annexed, including 1A and 1B.
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But attorneys against annexation say since the city is only waiving constitutional claims for those two areas, that could be difficult for possible appeals and newly elected officials having to deal with ‘constitutional’ areas 1A and 1B and the other ‘unconstitutional’ areas.
They also don’t want to go through an annexation trial to win and see the larger constitutional case reverse that outcome later.
City attorneys argue the pause in a trial is contrary to proceeding expeditiously and if constitutionality needs to be decided, it be addressed in this case rather than the other cases.
That’s up to Judge Nikirk who said a ruling could come Thursday morning.
