Committee approves amended SB289 after hours of testimony on DEI, fines and academic impact

The Indiana House Judiciary Committee on April 7 moved Senate Bill 289 forward after adopting an amendment that sponsors said narrowed the bill’s scope. The panel voted 8‑2 to adopt amendment 11 and later passed the bill as amended, 7‑3, following several hours of public testimony from university faculty, physicians, medical students and civil‑liberties advocates.

Senator John Byrne, sponsor of SB289, told the committee the measure is intended to enshrine “equal treatment under the law” in state practice and to respond to recent federal developments. "One of the most important principles of American government is equal treatment under the law," Senator Byrne said, referencing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and federal executive actions as background for the bill. He said the amended text focuses on prohibiting actions that treat people differently on the basis of specified personal characteristics rather than prescribing particular curricular language.

The most contested provision through testimony was what committee members and witnesses called “Chapter 7” — a cause of action in the bill that, as described in committee testimony, could impose…