Block on Indiana Police ‘Buffer Law’ Upheld by Seventh Circuit

An Indiana law that made it a crime to approach a police officer after being given an order to stay away is unconstitutionally vague, a federal appeals panel found in an order Tuesday that affirmed a lower court’s injunction barring enforcement of the statute.

The law gives an officer no real guidance on how to decide whether a stay-away order should be issued, Judge Doris Pryor of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit wrote.

“Without such guidance, any on-duty officer can use the buffer law to subject any pedestrian to potential criminal liability by simply ordering them ...