The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a Vanderburgh County ruling refusing to enforce civil investigative demands Attorney General Todd Rokita issued to Berry Global Group and the Haitian Center of Evansville, holding that the Attorney General never had an investigation to conduct in the first place.
The unanimous, published opinion was issued Monday in Todd Rokita, Indiana Attorney General v. Berry Global Group, Inc., and Haitian Center of Evansville, No. 25A-MI-2817. Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote for the panel; Judges Robert Altice and Peter Foley concurred.
Rokita’s office issued the demands, known as CIDs, in November 2024, seeking documents, electronically stored information and written responses from Berry Global — the Evansville packaging manufacturer since renamed Amcor — and from the Haitian Center, a refugee assistance organization. The office described the demands as part of an inquiry into labor trafficking. Neither recipient complied, and the Attorney General petitioned the Vanderburgh Superior Court to compel compliance.
In October 2025, Judge Robert J. Pigman denied the petitions, writing that the demands did not meet the statutory standard of reasonable cause and relevancy — the second prong of the standard drawn from the Indiana Supreme Court’s Nu-Sash decision. Pigman described his ruling as a narrow one. Rokita appealed.
The Court of Appeals affirmed on a broader basis. Indiana Code 4-6-3-3 authorizes a CID only in aid of an “investigation,” the panel held, and an investigation requires a factual predicate — a complaint, a tip or some articulable reason to suspect that particular wrongdoing may be afoot. A hunch is not enough.
The record showed the Attorney General was at most trawling for evidence of wrongdoing, the court found, looking for information that might eventually trigger an investigation based on a general concern that someone, somewhere might be involved in labor trafficking. Having shown nothing to investigate, the opinion states, the Attorney General had no authority to issue CIDs, and the demands were unauthorized, invalid and unenforceable.
According to the opinion, the office’s stated basis for the demands was that Berry Global is a large, sophisticated employer that recruits refugees and migrants and works with migrant resettlement nonprofits, and that the Haitian Center is one such organization. The petitions cited increased arrivals of migrants and refugees said to be vulnerable to trafficking and forced labor, but identified no suspect, victim or incident. Asked in the trial court to name a suspect or a specific act of trafficking, state attorneys could not.
The panel wrote that the Attorney General never identified particularized information in the CIDs, the enforcement petitions, oral argument before the trial court or the appellate briefs — and never alleged that any such information exists. The court described the approach as an attempt to reverse-engineer suspicion to fit a predetermined target.
The court also held that enforcing the demands absent a specific suspect or allegation would implicate First and Fourth Amendment protections and impose burdens on business.
In a footnote, the panel observed that the Attorney General had argued below that disclosing the information triggering the investigation could compromise it or breach confidentiality, but abandoned that argument on appeal — noting the apparent reason is that no such information exists, and that in camera review could have addressed the concern.
A second footnote records, without deciding, the recipients’ argument that the demands were aimed at immigration rather than trafficking. That argument relied on a November 8, 2024 press release from the Attorney General’s office referring to “border czar” Kamala Harris; the opinion reproduces the release with an archival link.
Berry Global was represented by Kian J. Hudson and Amanda Jane Gallagher of Barnes & Thornburg. The Haitian Center was represented by Patrick A. Shoulders and John D. Langmaid IV of Ziemer Stayman Weitzel & Shoulders in Evansville. The Office of the Attorney General argued its own appeal.
The two organizations were among at least eight entities that received CIDs from Rokita’s office in November 2024, a group that also included the Cass County Health Department, Logansport Community School Corp., the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., Tyson Foods and the New York-based Tent Partnership for Refugees. A separate demand to Exodus Refugee Immigration drew an ACLU of Indiana lawsuit last fall.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General told the Indiana Capital Chronicle the office is evaluating the decision and considering next steps for the investigations. A petition for rehearing would be due within 30 days of Monday’s decision; a petition to transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court would be due within 45 days.
