DeBruler was born in
Evansville,
Indiana. After graduating, DeBruler moved to
Indianapolis and began practicing law. DeBruler served as Deputy City
Prosecutor of Indianapolis from 1960 to 1963. DeBruler, a
Democrat, was appointed by
Governor Matthew E. Welsh as judge of the
Steuben County Circuit Court in 1963 and was re-elected to the same position in 1964. DeBruler was appointed to the
Indiana Supreme Court in 1958 by Governor
Roger D. Branigin following the death of Justice
Donald Mote. There was some controversy over whether DeBruler should stand for re-election to his position on the bench in 1968 or 1970 due to conflicting understandings of the provisions of the
state constitution on the matter. In the end, he ended up standing for re-election in 1970 and won. He and
Dixon Prentice were the last two Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court to be directly elected to the court—amendments to the state constitution made it so future justices would be appointed by the governor from a short list provided by the non-partisan
Judicial Nominating Commission. During his long career on the court, he authored 886 majority
opinions, 590 dissenting opinions, and about 270 concurring opinions. A notable dissent came from DeBruler in the case of whether a man who quit his jobs for religious reasons was entitled to unemployment benefits. DeBruler's dissent was granted
certiorari and adopted by the
United States Supreme Court. The principles of DeBruler's dissent were later enshrined by the
United States Congress into the 1993
Religious Freedom Restoration Act. DeBruler also opposed the
death penalty, believing it to be in violation of the state constitution's Bill of Rights. Other important opinions by DeBruler led to greater protection from searches and seizures by the state government (specifically protection of government searches of automobiles) and greater protection for Hoosier juveniles from
interrogation by the state government. DeBruler increasingly sided with the
Republican Justices of the court following the appointment of Justices
Randall Shepard and
Brent Dickson in the mid-1980s. DeBruler's opinions had a large influence on Indiana
jurisprudence. DeBruler retired from the court in 1996, succeeded by Justice
Theodore R. Boehm. DeBruler was the longest serving Justice of the court in the 20th Century and the third longest serving overall. After leaving the court, DeBruler spent a year in
France and took classes at a local university while abroad. DeBruler married Karen Steenerson of Steuben County. DeBruler once went on a trip to the
Yukon with his sons, Roger Jr. and Joseph. DeBruler lived in
Lockerbie Square, the oldest intact residential neighborhood in Indianapolis. He was also a patron of the
Indianapolis Public Library and was a fan of the work of
William Faulkner and
James Joyce. DeBruler died in 2017. ==References==