Judge refuses to stop license revocations
By JOSEPH DITS, Tribune Staff Writer
By Beth Boehne

On Wednesday a Marion Superior Court judge denied an injunction that would have temporarily stopped the BMV from revoking the credentials, a new process that began last year.

The injunction was sought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. It was paired with a class-action lawsuit where the key plaintiff was South Bend attorney Lyn Leone.

Mary Lyn Leone is the name on her birth certificate and Social Security records, but it didn’t match Lyn Leone, the name she started using on records as an adult, including her driver’s license.

The ACLU’s lawsuit claimed that it’s against state law and the U.S. Constitution to take away licenses because of mismatches between BMV and Social Security records.

A hearing was held April 11 before Judge Kenneth Johnson in Indianapolis.

In his 44-page ruling, Johnson wrote that the suit failed to show any harm or hardship to Leone by the BMV’s new screening process, which began last year.

Nor, Johnson wrote, did it show any that the BMV’s new process prevented anyone like Leone from using whatever names they wanted for other official purposes.

Johnson also wrote that it’s important to guard against identity theft and fraud, which is part of the case the BMV mad e in court.

Indiana became the 47th state to check its records against those of Social Security. It ended up affecting a mix of lifelong citizens and illegal immigrants.

“Not that long ago, Indiana was a magnet for those who wanted to obtain a fraudulent drivers license,â€