« Ind. Courts - "Porter County drug court now helping 11 offenders" | Main | Ind. Decisions - "Death Row inmate loses chance for another appeal" »

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Ind. Law - Florida story on southern Indiana lawyer's battle with Indiana clocks

An article from the Palm Beach Post this morning by Emily J. Minor features Steven Gustafson, 48, "a lawyer in southern Indiana, [who] was a bit obsessed for a while about this time change of ours - this 'spring forward' government-required maneuver that has so many of us out of whack."

The story relates that some ago, Gustafson, "lived in a small pocket of Indiana that observed daylight-saving time", he was "an appellate lawyer in the town of New Albany - right across the river from Louisville, Ky." But most of the surrounding counties did not observe DST. The result:

Since springing forward was "more or less a local option," Gustafson would show up at the Floyd County Courthouse for a hearing, all prompt and prepared. And the other parties would not.

By their wristwatches, they had another 60 minutes of dawdling time.

"Every time someone didn't show up, you'd just wait an hour," he said. "It was a mess." Such a mess that Gustafson decided to make it a federal case.

He filed a petition in U.S. District Court to force the secretary of transportation, the federal government's person in charge of time-change rules, to put everyone in southern Indiana on the same schedule. A year later, Gustafson's complaint was thrown out.

"The federal court ruled that I was right on the statutes, but that having to sit around for an hour waiting for people did not give me standing to make the secretary of transportation enforce the law," he said.

A few years after that, all of Indiana went on daylight-saving time, so "the things I was talking about are essentially moot now," said Gustafson, who nonetheless still hates the time change.

"As far as I'm concerned, the time of day is an astronomical fact that should be immune from government tinkering," he said.

A quick search of the internet reveals this site named "End Daylight Saving Time" featuring a June 14, 2000 press release by Mr. Gustafson that begins with this:
Steven A. Gustafson has filed a petition for mandamus, declaratory judgment, and injunctive relief in United States District Court. The purpose of this complaint is to challenge the observation of Daylight Saving Time in Southern Indiana as illegal, and compel the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation to enforce the law. Daylight Saving Time, as is well known, is a federal statute requiring people to set their clocks one hour ahead between the first Saturday in April and the last Saturday in October.
What does all this mean? Possibly that news takes a long time to make its way down to Florida.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 27, 2007 08:35 AM
Posted to Indiana Law