Writer, lawyer, dreamer, and doer.

Tools for finding, reading, and understanding Indiana law

I build tools and resources that make Indiana law easier to find, read, and understand. They’ll appear here as each one is ready for you to use.

Indiana Code MCP Prototype

An unofficial, searchable copy of the Indiana Code (annual snapshots 2017–2026, plus older session laws and the current court rules), built so AI assistants can look up a section as of a date and cite it. Coverage has gaps, such as missing 2018 acts and July-1 cutoffs for as-of dates, so verify every citation with the General Assembly. It is not legal advice; verify every citation with the General Assembly. mcp.openindianalaw.org · Source code

Indigo Book MCP Prototype

The Indigo Book, the open (CC0) manual of legal citation from Public.Resource.Org, as a searchable tool for AI assistants, so they can look up a citation rule and cite it. It is not the Bluebook and not legal advice. indigo.openindianalaw.org · Source code

Judicial education and AI Exploratory project

A worked example of using AI to help prepare judicial education, with every limit stated: 176 Indiana appellate opinions on evidence, an interactive map, one page per Rule of Evidence, prompts, handouts and slides. Released into the public domain (CC0). Not legal advice. openindianalaw.org/judicial/ai-exploration

Everything I build answers to the compass

My technical craft serves two constitutional objectives where law and technology meet: one in the Indiana Constitution, and one in the United States Constitution.

Open Courts

The Indiana Constitution’s Open Courts Clause reads:

All courts shall be open; and every person, for injury done to him in his person, property, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law. Justice shall be administered freely, and without purchase; completely, and without denial; speedily, and without delay.

Indiana Constitution, Article 1, Section 12. The 1851 text read “every man”; since an amendment of November 6, 1984, it reads “every person.” See an 1887 printing (Internet Archive).

Read more: what “open” meant in 1828

To me, open means more than available. It means accessible. In Noah Webster’s American dictionary of 1828, published a generation before this clause was written in 1851, open meant “Not fenced or obstructed,” “Admitting all persons without restraint; free to all comers,” and “Free to be employed for redress; not restrained or denied; not precluding any person.” Today’s dictionary still begins with “having no enclosing or confining barrier : accessible on all or nearly all sides.” Law that is posted somewhere but hard to find, read, or use is not fully open. That is why accessibility is part of every change I make.

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), vol. II, “open,” senses 8, 11, and 18 (original scan, Internet Archive; transcription); Merriam-Webster, “open,” sense 1.

The STEAM Clause

That’s my name for it. Courts and scholars call it the Intellectual Property Clause, the Copyright and Patent Clause, or the Progress Clause. Among the powers the United States Constitution gives Congress:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 (National Archives transcript; also at Project Gutenberg)

Read more: how the clause’s words changed

The public understanding and usage of its key words have shifted since 1787. The clause is built in two parallel halves: authors, their writings, and “Science”; inventors, their discoveries, and the “useful Arts.” At the time of the Framing, the progress of science meant “the creation and spread of knowledge and learning,” the work of authors that copyright protects. In Graham v. John Deere Co., the Court read the useful arts as the promotion of “advances” and said Congress may not enlarge the patent monopoly “without regard to the innovation, advancement or social benefit gained thereby”; that is the work of inventors that patents protect. Much of what we call science today lives in the useful arts, and the Framers’ science included the arts and letters. Science, technology, engineering, the arts: it reaches them all, so I call it the STEAM Clause. James Madison, defending it in The Federalist No. 43, put its bargain simply: “The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of individuals.”

Congressional Research Service, Constitution Annotated, ArtI.S8.C8.1, citing Golan v. Holder, 565 U.S. 302, 324 (2012), and Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 6 (1966); The Federalist No. 43 (James Madison), at Project Gutenberg.

Four questions before every change

1. North Star. Who does this change affect, and is it kind to them and to me?
2. Pleiades. Which of the seven habits does it serve?
3. Twin aims. Does it serve Open Courts, or the progress of science and the useful arts?
4. Accessibility. Can everyone use it, on any device and with any ability?

Desiderata

My maternal grandfather’s favorite poem, and my mother’s. It’s mine too.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

Max Ehrmann, Hoosier lawyer and poet

Read the whole poem and its story