A Monroe Circuit Court judge has temporarily blocked part of a new Indiana immigration law from being enforced in Monroe County.
Judge Luke Rudisill issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday against a section of Senate Enrolled Act 76, also called the FAIRNESS Act, over Fourth Amendment concerns.
The law went into effect across the rest of Indiana today.
The case focuses on language requiring law enforcement agencies to “comply with all requests made in the immigration detainer request.” Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté said complying with ICE detainers could mean holding individuals in custody beyond their scheduled release dates.
In his ruling, Rudisill focused on whether the clause could violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. He noted that ICE detainers are issued by immigration officers rather than judges, and they are based on civil immigration concerns rather than criminal charges with probable cause.
The differences raise constitutional questions, according to the ruling, when detainers result in someone being held past their release time without a warrant.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita criticized the injunction in a social media post, saying Marté “lost big time” in a recent federal case and “failed in his attempt in state court” to block the law. Marté was denied an injunction in the federal because of jurisdiction, not the substance of the case. The state court had paused a case while the federal case proceeded.
Rokita wrote that the state plans to appeal the injunction and said he is confident the law is constitutional.
The Attorney General’s office has not responded to a request for comment.
After the ruling, Sheriff Marté released a statement saying the case is about conflicts between the FAIRNESS Act and the Constitution, not immigration policy.
“No public official should be placed in the impossible position of choosing between violating constitutional rights and violating state law,” Marté wrote. “Public safety and constitutional fidelity are not competing values—they are complementary responsibilities that law enforcement officers uphold every day.”
The release said the sheriff’s office will continue cooperating with federal law enforcement within constitutional limits. In his statement, Marté said constitutional obligations remain central to law enforcement work.
“The Constitution is not merely a document we quote when it is convenient,” Marté wrote. “It is the oath we swear, the standard we uphold, and the promise we make to every person that the rule of law—not the rule of individuals—governs our actions.”
