Indiana Gaming Com'n v. Moseley
| Decision Date | 21 November 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 64S00-9406-CV-560,64S00-9406-CV-560 |
| Citation | 643 N.E.2d 296 |
| Parties | The INDIANA GAMING COMMISSION, Alan I. Klineman, Chairman, Ann Marie Bochnowski, Secretary, Gilmer Gene Hensley, David E. Ross, Jr., Robert W. Sundwick, Donald Raymond Vowels, Members, Appellants (Defendants Below), v. Charles MOSELEY, Adair Simmons, Herbert S. Lasser and Lionel Cohen, Appellees (Plaintiffs Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Pamela Carter, Atty. Gen., Jon Laramore, Arend J. Abel, Deputy Attys. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellants.
John M. Rhame, III, Portage, William G. Conover, Valparaiso, Garrett V. Conover, Portage, for appellees.
Gilbert King, Jr., MacArthur Drake, Hamilton L. Carmouche, Gary, for appellant-intervenor City of Gary.
Arthur P. Kalleres, Thomas K. Downs, Michael J. Lewinski, Indianapolis, for amicus curiae Indiana Ass'n of Cities and Towns.
John R. Schaibley, III, David L. Johnson, Amy E. Kosnoff, Indianapolis, for amici curiae City of Hammond, East Chicago, Lawrenceburg, Rising Sun, Michigan City, Evansville and Gary.
Michael T. Schaefer, Indianapolis, for amici curiae City of Portage and Portage Chamber of Commerce.
Douglas R. Brown, Philip R. Thompson, William N. Ivers, Peter J. Rusthoven, Andrew J. Detherage, David E. Kirtley, Indianapolis, for amicus curiae Indiana Gaming Ass'n.
Four Porter County residents sued the Indiana Gaming Commission to challenge the statute authorizing riverboat gambling in Indiana. The Porter Superior Court held that the statute violated the Indiana Constitution and enjoined the Commission from issuing licenses. The Commission initiated this direct appeal. We conclude the statute is constitutional and reverse the judgment of the trial court.
The Indiana Constitution of 1851 contained a prohibition against lotteries that served to retard various forms of gambling in the state. See, e.g., State v. Nixon (1979), 270 Ind. 192, 384 N.E.2d 152 (). In the 1980s, the General Assembly proposed a constitutional amendment deleting this prohibition, and the voters approved the amendment during the 1988 general election. The legislature proceeded at its very next session to authorize horse race gambling, Ind.Code Ann. art. 4-31 (West Supp.1989), and a state lottery, Ind.Code Ann. art. 4-30 (West Supp.1989). The lottery has long been up and running, and, as of a few weeks ago, so are the horses.
In 1993, a special session of the General Assembly added riverboat casinos to the list of permissible gambling enterprises. Ind.Code Ann. art. 4-33 (West Supp.1994). The statute creates the Indiana Gaming Commission, which is authorized to issue up to eleven riverboat casino licenses: five on Lake Michigan, five on the Ohio River, and one on Patoka Lake. Ind.Code Ann. § 4-33-6-1. The statute permits the Commission to license riverboats in these areas only if (1) the local legislative body approves of the practice through an ordinance and (2) the voters of the area vote for gambling in a referendum. Ind.Code Ann. §§ 4-33-6-18 to -20.
The act further provides these referenda shall be county-wide in the counties contiguous to the Ohio River, in the counties contiguous to Patoka Lake, and in any counties contiguous to Lake Michigan with less than 400,000 people. Ind.Code Ann. § 4-33-6-19. In any county next to Lake Michigan with more than 400,000 people the statute requires referenda in cities of less than 100,000, voting to be by city. Ind.Code Ann. § 4-33-6-20. A referendum is thus not required in cities over 100,000 in counties over 400,000. Simply put, all referenda are to be held on a county-wide basis except in Lake County. In Lake County, the voting is by city, except that Gary is not required to conduct a referendum. 1
The present litigation arose following referenda in the three counties on Lake Michigan. In Lake County, the voters in East Chicago and Hammond voted for gambling. LaPorte County's voters did likewise. Porter County, however, voted 20,790 to 15,186 against gambling; voters in Portage voted for gambling but were outnumbered by opponents in other parts of the county. 2
Appellees Lasser and Cohen are landowners in Porter County who hoped to use their land for riverboat gambling operations. They joined with two Portage businessmen, appellees Moseley and Simmons, in suing the Commission in the Porter Superior Court. These plaintiffs contended that the statute's referenda provisions violated the Indiana Constitution by contravening Article I, section 23 on privileges and immunities and Article IV, sections 22 and 23 on special legislation. The trial court initially held for the Commission, upholding the constitutionality of the statute against all claims. When it ruled on appellees' motion to correct errors, however, the court held instead that the statute violated Article IV, section 23, and it enjoined the Commission from acting further to process licenses. The court did not alter its previous holding that the statute conformed to Article I, section 23.
The Commission sought an expedited appeal, which this Court granted. It appeals the trial court's determination that the statute violates Article IV, section 23. Appellees cross-appeal pursuant to Ind.Trial Rule 59(G), contending the trial court erred in holding that the statute conformed to Article I, section 23. Both parties and numerous amici curiae have provided excellent briefs, for which we express our thanks.
This Court analyzes questions arising under the Indiana Constitution by examining the language of the text in the context of the history surrounding its drafting and ratification, the purpose and structure of our constitution, and case law interpreting the specific provisions. State Election Bd. v. Bayh (1988), Ind., 521 N.E.2d 1313. We begin with appellants' claim that the trial court erred when it held the riverboat gambling act unconstitutional under Article IV and then consider the Article I claim.
and 23
The various parties, including appellees and amicus, either implicitly acknowledge or explicitly assert that the statutes at issue do not involve any of the seventeen categories enumerated in section 22. Accordingly, we focus on section 23 A. Constitutional Origins. Fiscal woes attendant to the Wabash-Erie Canal played a central role in the decision to call the Constitutional Convention of 1850, but there were a variety of catalysts for drafting a new state constitution. In his annual message to the General Assembly in January 1848, Governor James Whitcomb outlined the problems requiring attention and made it clear that one of those was the spectacle of a legislature awash in proposals for special and local laws:
Occasion has been repeatedly taken in my former messages, to allude to the great amount of our local or special legislation, the danger of injustice by its means to individual interests, its expense to the treasury, and the large portion of time it necessarily occupies to the detriment of that mature and thorough consideration which is due to subjects of a general character.
House Journal, 32d sess. 131 (1848). Whitcomb later even went so far as to say that "[i]f calling a convention to amend the constitution were productive of no other result than furnishing an effectual remedy for th[is] growing evil [of special and local legislation], it would be abundantly justified." House Journal, 33d sess. 24 (1849).
Under the Indiana Constitution of 1816, the legislature regularly adopted statutes on everything from individual divorces 3 to particular streams, roads, streets, and alleys. 4 The practice grew worse throughout the 1840s. 5 By the time of the 1849 and 1850 sessions, over 90% of the laws passed by the legislature were special legislation of this sort. Frank E. Horack & Matthew E. Welsh, Special Legislation: Another Twilight Zone, 12 Ind.L.J. 109, 115-16 (1936); see also Horack & Welsh, 12 Ind.L.J. 183, 192-93 (1937). Debate on the floor of the ensuing convention emphasized the concern over the effects of this flood of local legislation. 6 The resulting provisions in the legislative article are the subject of this litigation. They provide:
The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws: Providing for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors; Regulating the practice in courts of justice; Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases; Granting divorces; Changing the names of persons; Providing for laying out, opening, and working on, highways, and for the election or appointment of supervisors; Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public squares; Summoning and empaneling grand and petit juries, and providing for their compensation; Regulating county and township business; Regulating the election of county and township officers and their compensation; Providing for the assessment and collection of taxes for State, county, township, or road purposes; Providing for the support of common schools, or the preservation of school funds; Relating to fees or salaries, except that the laws may be so made as to grade the compensation of officers in proportion to the population and the necessary services required; Relating to interest on money; Providing for opening and conducting elections of State, county, or township officers, and designating the places of voting; Providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees.
In all the cases enumerated in the preceding section, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the State.
The drafters thus expressed a preference for general laws, but they also recognized that special laws were sometimes necessary. Acknowledging this...
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