While the South Dakota state motto is "Under God, the People Rule," under the governorship of Kristi Noem, that wasn't happening on the day before Thanksgiving 2021.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune published the article by South Dakota Associated Press reporter Steve Groves, South Dakota Supreme Court rules against pot legalization:
The South Dakota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's ruling that nullified a voter-passed amendment to the state constitution that would have legalized recreational marijuana use.
Gov. Kristi Noem instigated the legal fight to strike down the amendment passed by voters in November. Though the Republican governor opposed marijuana legalization as a social ill, her administration's arguments in court centered on technical violations to the state constitution.
The high court sided with those arguments in a 4-1 decision, ruling that the measure — Amendment A — would have violated the state's requirement that constitutional amendments deal with just one subject.
"It is clear that Amendment A contains provisions embracing at least three separate subjects, each with distinct objects or purposes," Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote in the majority opinion, which found recreational marijuana, medical marijuana and hemp each to be separate issues.
About 54% of voters approved the constitutional amendment last year. But Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Rick Miller sued on Noem's behalf. Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom also joined the lawsuit. The high court ruled that the law enforcement officers did not have standing to sue, but because Noem ordered Miller's suit, they treated it as if Noem brought the lawsuit herself. . . .
Our response to the news was to share how our conservative neighbors were disappointed when Noem stepped in (while our precinct in Roberts County did voted for Trump and Amendment A in 2020, Noem only received 30 percent of the Summit area precinct in 2018).
Dakota Free Press's editor quote tweeted a reminder:
Enormously important point: without Kristi Noem’s intervention, the South Dakota Supreme Court would have booted the lawsuit against Amendment A, and marijuana would be legal today in South Dakota. https://t.co/yCsNXbFgYO
— CAHeidelberger (@coralhei) November 24, 2021
Will this have electoral consequences? Reporting for the Forum News Service, Christopher Vondracek noted in South Dakota's high court strikes down recreational pot law:
. . .Supporters charged on Wednesday that the court had overrun the will of more than half of the state's voters
Brendan Johnson, the chief litigant for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, vowed on social media to "return power to the people," saying he shared the frustration of "hundreds of thousands of South Dakotans who had their votes thrown out."
Similarly, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Rep. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, also told Forum News Service that "It's unfortunate that the will of the people was overturned."
Discontent with the ruling was not uniform on party lines. In a message to FNS, Aberdeen Republican Sen. Mike Rohl, who has taken an active role in a summer study committee to draft legalization bills, also lamented the ruling's consequence on criminal prosecutions of marijuana offenders, saying, "I hope there won't be too many lives destroyed before the peoples' will is recognized."
Rohl said he looked forward to raising cannabis legalization in Pierre. . . .
Rohl is our state senator and we can imagine his constituents in Summit wll cheer. Vondracek continues:
Last week, the chair of the Legislature's summer study on marijuana, Sen. Bryan Breitling, R-Miller, vowed to bring forward bills to decriminalize marijuana if the court struck down Amendment A.
The ruling may also add a new wrinkle to the coming gubernatorial fight. While a Democrat has not yet announced a challenge to Noem, the Republican's inter-party rival, Rep. Steve Haugaard, R-Sioux Falls, released a statement on Wednesday, that sidestepped a full-throated endorsement of cannabis legalization but noted, "the Legislature is keenly aware of the public's concern that the people's voice must be heard and respected."
The court's opinion had been expected for months after oral arguments at the end of April. Of note, it's evident the court's author had been changed, as Wednesday's opinion notes Jensen was "reassigned" the opinion in early September.
And there's this, at Dakota Free Press in SD Supreme Court Kills Amendment A on Single-Subject Violation:
. . . With the South Dakota Supreme Court’s stamp of death now on Amendment A, pot promoters can only give thanks for the fact that, in October, they launched Plan B, a petition drive to place an initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana on the November 2022 ballot. Supporters have until May 3 to collect and submit 16,961 signatures from registered South Dakota voters to put that measure to a vote.
We signed the petition at a smoke shop in Watertown. We'll see how this goes--and on Thanksgiving eve, we're grateful for our state senator's leadership.
Photo: Cannabis in a greenhouse.
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