Court Cases

The League of Women Voters of South Dakota and an individual plaintiff, represented by Campaign Legal Center, the ACLU Voting Rights Project, the ACLU of South Dakota and Heidepriem Purtell Siegel Hinrichs, LLP, have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to ensure South Dakota’s administration of a new voter registration requirement complies with the U.S. Constitution and federal law. During the 2026 legislative session, the ACLU of South Dakota and the League of Women Voters of South Dakota testified against SB 175, which requires new voters to provide unnecessary documentation of their U.S. citizenship when registering to vote or otherwise lose the opportunity to vote in state and local elections by being designated a “federal-only” voter. For the most common and accessible forms of this documentation—driver licenses, Tribal IDs, and non-driver state IDs—the state is requiring voters to provide original copies in person. And if there is an issue with the voter’s documentation, the state sends these voters a notice letter containing inaccurate information about why their registration was denied. The implementation of this law has not only caused confusion and created unnecessary barriers to registering to vote for South Dakotans, but it also violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law. We are asking the court to ensure that South Dakota’s new registration law is implemented in a way that complies with crucial, pro-voter provisions of federal law, so all South Dakotans can make their voices heard in this upcoming election, and all elections in the future.

UPDATE: Under an agreement to allow judgment to be entered against the state, which was submitted for court approval on Dec. 8, the state agreed to amend its personalized license plate law and the Motor Vehicle Division’s policy that infringed on the free speech rights of all South Dakotans.

UPDATE: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Planned Parenthood's motion to dismiss the appeal in the Eighth Circuit and vacated the temporary restraining order at Planned Parenthood's request due to the Dobbs decision.

UPDATE: On Nov. 4, 2019, Charles Rhines, 63, was executed by lethal injection for the 1992 murder of Donnivan Schaeffer. Rhines was initially scheduled to be executed at 1:30 p.m., but multiple unsuccessful appeals filed with the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the lethal injection by several hours. Rhines was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing his former fellow employee at a Rapid City Donut shop during a robbery.

UPDATE: In a settlement agreement, approved by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol, Gov. Kristi Noem, and Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg backed down from their unconstitutional attempts to silence pipeline protestors.

UPDATE: The U.S. District Court deemed South Dakota’s deadline far too restrictive, and agreed that it infringed on the right to vote and the freedom to associate. View

UPDATE: This federal lawsuit accusing the South Dakota state health plan of discrimination was dismissed following the death of our friend and plaintiff, Terri Bruce.

All plaintiffs in these cases were subjected by law enforcement and state officials to forcible catheterization in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota with attorney James Leach of Rapid City, South Dakota filed two important lawsuits challenging the use of forced catheterization. One lawsuit involved a minor child and was against the South Dakota Department of Social Services and Avera St. Mary’s Hospital. The other lawsuit was filed on behalf of six adults against the City of Wagner and the Wagner Police Department, the City of Pierre and the Pierre Police Department, the City of Sisseton and the Sisseton Police Department, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol along with individually named law enforcement officers.

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear this case.