PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Supreme Court Friday revived an anti-abortion group’s lawsuit to stop a November ballot measure that would legalize abortion here.
The state’s High Court reversed a decision of Circuit Court Judge John Pekas, who ruled last month that Life Defense Fund should have filed a writ of quo warranto against the secretary of state instead of filing its case against Dakotans for Health, the author of the proposed constitutional amendment at the center of the litigation.
A writ of quo warranto against the secretary of state would have challenged the office’s legal authority to place the measure – Amendment G – on the ballot.
But in a brief ordering the reversal issued to Pekas, Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote that the lower court judge erred when he ruled that Life Defense Fund should have challenged the secretary of state’s authority. Participating in the order were the Court’s four other justices.
“The Court has not decided and expresses no opinion on any other issues raised by the parties,” Jensen wrote, “including whether the secretary of state is an indispensable party to this action. Any such issue can be resolved, in the first instance, by the circuit court on remand.”
Dakotans for Health collected enough signatures to bring an abortion amendment to voters. Amendment G would add abortion to the state Constitution and establishes regulations for abortion as pregnancies advance. Abortion became illegal in South Dakota on June 24, 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that deemed abortion a constitutional right.
⌊ Circuit Judge Dismisses Abortion Ballot Lawsuit ⌋
Life Defense Fund argued the ballot measure never should have been certified for the ballot because many of the 55,000 signatures collected were not valid. The group said it had evidence, including videos, that people were tricked into signing the petition, thinking they were signing a petition for a different measure also being circulated by Dakotans for Health.
The group also argued that South Dakota law prohibits out-of-state residents from working as petition circulators and that enough signatures were collected by out-of-state residents to invalidate the measure.
The Supreme Court can take months, or longer, to issue orders or opinions, but did so in this case in less than three weeks. The November vote is three months away, but election deadlines are only weeks away. The secretary of state must certify ballot questions to state auditors by Aug. 13, and early voting starts Sept. 20.
“We are thrilled the Supreme Court expedited our case and rightly sent it back to the state court, where our case can be heard and thoroughly examined,” Life Defense Fund Co-Chair Leslie Unruh said in a release. “(Dakotans for Health co-founder) Rick Weiland and his paid posse have broken laws, tricked South Dakotans into signing their abortion petition, left petitions unattended, and much more. Dakotans for Health illegally gathered signatures to get Amendment G on the ballot, therefore this measure should not be up for a vote this November.”
In a statement to The Dakota Scout, Weiland said: “This is just another bump in the road in the effort to try to deny the people of South Dakota the right to determine their own reproductive rights and freedom.”
Friday’s order wasn’t a complete victory for Life Defense Fund. The Court denied the group’s request that its lawsuit be remanded to another judge rather than Pekas, and it also denied its request that any remand hearing be expedited, with Jensen writing: “This exceptional level of supervision over a circuit court’s calendar is not supported by the current state of the record.”
