Case Summary : Lacy v. Indiana, 903 N.E.2d 486 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009)

Summary: Lacy v. Indiana, 903 N.E.2d 486 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009). The defendant was convicted of possession of a knife with an automatic opening blade (a class B misdemeanor under the Indiana Code). She appealed, arguing that the statute violated her right to bear arms under Ind. Const. art. I, § 32 and was therefore unconstitutional on its face. The court focused on the actual operation of the statute at issue, refraining from “speculating upon hypothetical applications.” Thus, it only considered an as applied constitutional challenge. The Court found that the Code section was rationally calculated to advance the public good, and thus was a valid exercise of the State's police power. Furthermore, switchblades (the type of knife that defendant possessed) were not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for self-defense purposes. Moreover, the Code section was properly limited because it did not prohibit the possession of all knives, but only knives that opened automatically or could be propelled by hand pressure applied to a button or other device in the handle of the knife. Based upon these conclusions, the Code section did not place a material burden upon the core value of defendant's right to defend herself, and therefore was not unconstitutional as applied to defendant.

Practice Note: This case presents a historical analytical method similar to the one used by the Court in Heller, but with an opposite result.