A two-year legal saga pitting Attorney General Todd Rokita against the state agency which oversees professional misconduct complaints against attorneys reached an apparent end last week with the dismissal of a second disciplinary case against Rokita.

The Indiana Supreme Court reprimanded Rokita in 2023 for labeling Indianapolis OB/GYN Caitlin Bernard, MD, in a Fox News interview as “an abortion activist acting as a doctor.” The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission argued Rokita’s comments risked prejudice to a then-pending Medical Licensing Board inquiry and violated a second professional conduct rule banning statements with “no substantial purpose other than to embarrass, delay, or burden a third person.”  

Rokita and the Commission reached a settlement agreement in which Rokita accepted responsibility and acknowledged the facts as laid out in the agreement. Immediately after the agreement was announced, however, Rokita’s office issued a statement defending the truth of his comments and declaring he “could have fought over” them in a disciplinary hearing, but that “to resolve this [complaint], I was required to sign an affidavit without any modifications.” That triggered a second disciplinary complaint, in which the Commission alleged Rokita’s acceptance of responsibility was not genuine.

The new complaint was scheduled for a hearing in December. In July, the Court unanimously rejected a dismissal motion from Rokita but prodded the two sides to work with a mediator to resolve the case, which Justice Derek Molter wrote “seems to boil down primarily to whether [Rokita] really meant it when he told us he was accepting responsibility.” 

A joint statement from Rokita and the Commission cites Molter’s comment, and affirms the attorney general “’really meant it’ when he signed the affidavit accepting responsibility.” The statement also:

• Reaffirms the contents of the 2023 affidavit and reaffirms that Rokita signed it voluntarily.
• Declares that in readopting the 2023 statement, Rokita seeks “to clarify any real or perceived confusion that followed his public statements.”
• Notes that Indiana’s Rules of Professional Conduct apply to all attorneys in the state.

The Court unanimously granted a request from Rokita and the Commission to dismiss the disciplinary case.

The joint statement concludes, “With this public statement, the Commission and [Rokita] now consider this matter closed.”