E-mail from the Indiana Senate Majority Caucus:
President Pro Tempore of the Senate, David C. Long, and the Speaker of the House, Brian C. Bosma, issue the following joint statement:
(May 23, 2011) – After reviewing the decision of the Indiana Supreme Court in Barnes v. State of Indiana, we respectfully request that the Court grant a rehearing for the purpose of clarifying its decision. We have heard overwhelmingly from our Hoosier constituents, and legal scholars, that the language used to address the specific facts of this case may have unintentionally erased hundreds of years of common law precedent on the topic of reasonable resistance to unlawful entry. A more narrowly-tailored opinion could preserve the long-established private property rights of our citizens while continuing to protect the safety of our law enforcement officers and citizens where unique circumstances exist, such as a domestic disturbance. Many individual members of the General Assembly have begun work on potential legislation to restore these private property rights; if the Court did not intend to rescind this right, except in very limited circumstances where an emergency exists, a clarification from the Court would be extremely helpful.