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The Indiana Supreme Court Currently has no African American Justices as the Indiana BAR Association Plans to Celebrate BAR Diversity During Upcoming Expo
- Gregg Smith
- Jun 9
- 4 min read
Where is Indiana's Last Black Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court Today?
NOT INDIANAPOLIS.
Answer: The Villages, Florida, of course.
All seriousness aside, he serves as the "loofah code" enforcement administrative law judge.
The "loofah code" in The Villages refers the use of different color loofas on golf carts and cars to indicate a resident's interest in a particular level of social interaction, friskiness, mostily swinging or dating preferences. Move over upside pineapples, loofahs are rage in Florida.
They may be used to clean your body in the shower or sit-down bath, but these scratchy sponges are also being used as a signal for people looking to get down and dirty in their Florida retirement.
Seriously, born in 1947 in Canton, Georgia, and raised in Gary, Indiana, retired Indiana Supreme Court Justice Robert D. Rucker retired from the state’s highest court on May 12, 2017, concluding nearly two decades of judicial service and a career marked by historic firsts and lasting impact.
Since his departure from the Supreme
Court of Indiana (SCOIN), until recently anyway, the Court has cracked down on disciplinary (DI) case outcomes, making punishments for lawyers accused of ethics violations inconsistently harsher than in the past.
By essentially costing lawyers far more money in fees and costs than their law school education in legal fees, with connected ethics case defense lawyers, court costs, and fees, many lawyers faced a career death sentence of sorts.
Too often the effective but unstated Legal Career Death Penalty for conduct that was accidental or lacking intent has been applied. One former staff lawyer of the Supreme Court Injured on the job and disabled was not just wrongly discharged but was effectively disbarred and his 6 month suspension remains enforced today 9 years later.
SEE https://www.hoosierenquirer.com/post/andrew-straw-et-al-v-indiana-loretta-rush-and-g-michael-witte
The high courts practice of what appear as short or reasonable suspensions without automatice reistatement, is a practice Justice Rucker very llkely would have opposed. It is a fraud on its face for one, and secondly, charging fees and costs for reinstatements is a money grab that is not even justified or proportanate to the small amount of work state lawyers need to do in one-sided, rigged justice case with exclusive, uncheck and unconstitutional power
In many instances in Indiana, extremely criminal lawyers who are in prison weren’t even regulated by the state’s duplicitous legal ethics system until after the state’s criminal justice system found them guilty of crimes. Only then did they catch a DI case before SCOIN, which was way too late for their victims.
LaPorte County lawyer, serving as a deputy prosecutor, self-reported his violative ethical conduct breach when he accidentally overheard a protected conversation between a defendant and his defense lawyer, expecting to be ordered to withdraw or guard against sharing the overheard information.
The Supreme Court, under Loretta Rush’s harsh rule, suspended Attorney Rob Neary, whose father was a former Indiana State Senator, for five years, suspending him from the practice of law. This forced him to spend five years working for the LaPorte County Assessor, and he is still likely saddled with debt of nearly $100,000 from crooked lawyers’ fees and costs assessed by the current justices, having been so graciously allowed back into the profession he studied three years after college to toil at in rural Indiana. Justice Rucker, whether in Florida or not, was fairer to lawyers than the current lot. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-neary-155b74285
As the most recent Black justice to serve on the Indiana Supreme Court, Justice Rucker was appointed in 1999 and became a pivotal figure in the state's legal history. His nearly 18-year tenure on the bench followed years of legal service, military valor, and public leadership (insd.uscourts.gov). That is the company line. He was not often in agreement with the coservative majority as he fought from the heart as those who remember his contributions to justice and equity miss. HIs kinder and gentle approach replaced with savage power and inconsistency.
HE HAS PUBLISH PREVIOUS ARTICLES ABOUT THE FAILING SUPREME COURT UNDER CHIEF JUSTICE LORETTA, EVEN CALLING FOR HER RETIREMENT. (LORETTA THE VILLAGES ARE CALLING YOU!). SEE https://www.hoosierenquirer.com/post/indiana-recently-honored-paralegals-becuase-now-what-i-did-to-lose-my-law-license-is-okay-you-can and
(HE has been running a 3-Part Series of Articles embarrassing to CJ Rush, and this article while separate and apart from that reporting, should also embarrass Indiana's legal system leaders, who many now truthfully realize are largely Wizard-of-Oz-style clowns, holding on to power they aren't capable of wielding or using fairly.)
Following his retirement, Justice Rucker has primarily maintained a private life. He has not held any public or judicial office since leaving the court in 2017. Despite stepping back from public duties, Rucker is still occasionally seen at special events, particularly those honoring veterans or members of the judiciary—befitting a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a respected legal trailblazer (en.wikipedia.org).
Today, Rucker residing far from the Indiana courtrooms where he left his mark contributing to justice and equity, heremains affiliated with the American Law Institute.
Before Justice Rucker’s appointment, Myra C. Selby made history as both the first African-American and first woman to serve on Indiana’s Supreme Court from 1995 to 1999.
Retired Justice Selby remains active in the legal community, currently serving as Chair of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Commission on Race and Gender Fairness, where she continues to influence state policy and inclusion efforts (en.wikipedia.org). Money keeps the status quo.
As Indiana continues to examine "Diversity" amoung lawyers and the BAR, and DEI representation within its legal institutions, the legacies of both Rucker and Selby remain guiding examples of service, excellence, and the progress still to be made. HE supports a merit based system over the preference system that gave us Loretta Rush as a DEI and weak often dishonest, sacandel plagued first female Chief Justice of Indiana's Supreme Court. SEE https://www.hoosierenquirer.com/post/expos%C3%A9-ind-supreme-court-chief-justice-loretta-rush-s-alleged-kids-for-cash-empire-in. Loretta Rush may hold herself out as clean and as the most powerful state leader, who Governors fear, but the curtain has fallen down.
Loretta Rush and Mark Massa, you may need to study and learn this next:
