We have seen ideological activists try and hijack the direction of our country by invading corporate boardrooms, classrooms, and hospitals. What is less well known is that the same left-wing campaign to reshape our society has set out to invade our courtrooms too, using lawfare to force their agenda on the American people where voters or legislators decline to go along with a progressive agenda.
This weaponization of the legal system is best understood for what it is: “woke lawfare.” It is a campaign to reshape society through lawsuits rather than legislation, using courtrooms instead of legislative bodies to decide how Americans can live, work, and do business. The fight against this political lawfare is the next frontier in the fight against the Left’s woke agenda.
Woke lawfare is built on the idea that if you cannot win the argument at the ballot box, you can just rewrite the rules through the courts. Activists and trial lawyer allies file sweeping lawsuits aimed at pressuring companies, cities, and consumers to accept progressive lifestyle choices they never voted for and would likely never choose on their own. Each case creates new constraints on daily life, wiping disfavored products off shelves, driving up prices to match left-wing priorities, and narrowing the range of acceptable behavior beyond what a legislature has approved.
These lawsuits take many forms. Some activists claim that lawful, regulated products such as firearms or energy products constitute “public nuisances.” Others use consent decrees and settlement agreements to push businesses into adopting climate change commitments or social mandates such as DEI policies that reach far beyond what the actual laws on the books require.
For everyday Americans, especially those living outside coastal enclaves where woke ideology has become widely accepted, the consequences are real and personal. Woke lawfare can mean higher pump prices and electricity costs when energy producers are targeted. It can mean fewer available goods when certain products are targeted for elimination, from which vehicles you can drive to which home appliances you can buy. The common thread is loss, including the loss of choice, higher costs for families, and fewer opportunities for consumers to have a say in how they live their lives and raise their families.
If you drive a gas-powered car, own a firearm lawfully, cook with a gas stove, or rely on plastics and traditional energy, the activists behind woke lawfare have you in their sights. They want to decide for you which lifestyles count as “acceptable.” And they don’t plan to wait for legislative change to make it happen. Their endgame is to substitute judicial mandates for consensus, imposing policy through settlements and court orders rather than a public vote. It’s a strategy designed to outlast election cycles and remove the checks that keep power in the hands of voters.
Fortunately, states like Indiana are pushing back. The Indiana General Assembly’s House Bill 1417 represents one of the most meaningful efforts in the country to stop woke lawfare in its tracks. This legislation directly addresses the legal weapons that activists have been using to advance their goals. Most importantly, it places needed limits on public nuisance, a preferred vehicle for ideological litigation (for more, visit https://www.publicnuisancerevealed.org/). Without those guardrails, activists and their trial lawyer allies will continue to be able to deploy nuisance claims whenever the political moment calls for it, as they have already worked to do with energy producers and gun manufacturers.
If enacted, this measure would protect Hoosier consumers and taxpayers alike. It would prevent activists from using lawsuits to strip citizens of products or services on which they rely. And it would defend the separation of powers by reinforcing the basic principle that change should come from legislatures and the ballot box, not activists in the courtroom.
By passing House Bill 1417, lawmakers would also set a national example for how conservatives can push back on woke lawfare.
The fight against woke lawfare is ultimately a fight to keep control of government in the hands of the people, where it belongs. Indiana has an opportunity to show the nation what it looks like to stand firm and defend that principle. By standing up now, the state – my home state – can safeguard consumer choice, preserve judicial integrity, and reaffirm that political agendas should be hashed out at the ballot box, not in the jury box.
