Three members of the Indiana Supreme Court, middle, were up for retention on this year’s ballot. Photo from Flickr.

By Niki Kelly
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — The three Indiana Supreme Court justices up for retention will stay on the state’s top court, unofficial election night returns showed.

An Indiana Election Division update from 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night showed Chief Justice Loretta Rush, Justice Mark Massa and Justice Derek Molter easily winning approval.

Judicial retention is usually a foregone conclusion during election season, but a grassroots social media campaign sprung up to remove the three because they upheld Indiana’s abortion ban.

About 71% of Hoosiers voted to retain Rush, 69% Massa and 69% Molter.

Both Rush and Massa were up for retention in 2014; their approval then was 69% and 67%, respectively. Tuesday was Molter’s first retention vote, as he was appointed in 2022.

Indiana has used a merit selection process to choose and retain its appellate judges for the past 50 years. Once appointed, a judge must stand for retention at the first statewide general election after the judge has served for two full years. If retained, the judge is on the retention ballot every 10 years. The retention system is designed to allow appellate judges to decide cases fairly and impartially, free from campaign finance considerations, and without influence by partisan politics.

No Indiana Supreme Court justice has lost a retention vote since the process was instituted in 1970, according to the Indiana Lawyer.

Hoosier voters also retained two appellate judges: Judge Rudolph “Rudy” Pyle III and Judge Peter Foley.