No tip, no victim, no named suspect - just a sweeping paperwork demand that fell apart
Indiana's top lawyer wanted employers' files on migrant workers. An appeals court just told him he needed a reason first.
In November 2024, the Indiana Attorney General sent a civil investigative demand - a legal order to turn over documents and answer questions - to Berry Global Group, an Evansville manufacturer. Three weeks later, a similar order went to the Haitian Center of Evansville, a nonprofit that serves the city's Haitian community.
The demands said the attorney general was looking into "human labor trafficking and indecent nuisances." Berry Global's order sought dozens of records tied to its hiring and employment of "Migrant" workers. Neither demand named a suspect, a victim, or a specific incident. Both organizations refused to comply.
Here is the part that matters for anyone running an HR function: neither Berry Global nor the Haitian Center was accused of trafficking. The attorney general's theory, as the court described it, was that migrants arriving in Evansville "are often uniquely vulnerable to exploitation," and that a large employer recruiting them might hold useful information.
The attorney general petitioned to enforce the demands. He lost. On July 27, 2026, the Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed that loss.
The court's reasoning was blunt. A civil investigative demand is valid only if there is a real investigation behind it - and an investigation needs "a factual...
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