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Sen. David Long > Media Center > Published Articles > 2/11/01: Curfew 2/11/01: Curfew

FROM THE DESK OF SENATOR DAVID LONG

Last week, one of my Senate committees discussed and passed a proposed new law that would reinstate curfews for our children in Indiana . For those of you who may not know, our state curfew law was ruled unconstitutional last year by an Indianapolis Federal court. In effect, the judge said that the failure to have an exception to the law which would allow a child the right to exercise basic first amendment rights made the law unconstitutional. The court reasoned that the law failed to allow a teenager to assemble for a political rally after 11PM at night, or to attend a late city council meeting, etc.

While this ruling is currently under appeal, and could theoretically be reversed by the higher courts, our committee felt that it was crucial that we get a law passed this year that would pass constitutional muster against any possible new challenge.

More importantly, the failure to pass a new law would continue the unthinkable; our state would have no curfew law for another year! I would argue the curfew law is not only important to protect the public, but is also there to protect our children as well.

The law that was struck down basically made it illegal for a child under the age of 15 to ever be out after 11PM and before 5AM. For a 15, 16, or 17 year old, the curfew was in force after 11PM on Sunday through Thursday; before 5AM on Monday through Friday; and between 1AM and 5AM on Saturday and Sunday.

The exceptions were when:

  • the child was accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or custodian, or an adult specified by the parent, guardian or custodian; or
  • participating in, going to, or returning from:
  • lawful employement;
  • a school sanctioned activity; or
  • a religious event.

The law ran into trouble because of the failure to include the first amendment exceptions noted above. The new law includes several new exceptions, the most important of which is where the child was exercising his or her first amendment rights. This will have to be a judgment call by the police officer, but that will never change no matter what exceptions are written. The new law also requires the police officer to make every attempt to contact the child's parents prior to taking the child into custody.

Hopefully, this new law will not be challenged by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. Their lobbyists have indicated that they are satisfied with the new language in the proposed law, but we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, the police are unable to enforce a curfew law in Indiana , mainly because there isn't one. I hope you agree that this is an intolerable situation, and that there is an urgent need to pass a new law this year.