South Dakota Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in South Dakota, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can a South Dakota water development district fund its own erosion-control projects or projects benefiting private landowners?
Yes. A South Dakota water development district may sponsor its own qualifying water-resource projects and projects for private groups, but direct beneficiaries generally must pay for the benefits they…
Can a South Dakota school district skip local competitive bidding by piggybacking on an out-of-state cooperative purchasing contract for a construction project?
No. South Dakota's cooperative purchasing statute (SDCL 5-18A-37) only covers supplies and services, not public improvement construction. A school district that signs a design-build construction contr…
In a South Dakota city with an aldermanic form of government, can the city council fire the City Administrator on its own, or does only the mayor have that power?
Only the mayor can. South Dakota law (SDCL 9-14-13) gives the mayor sole authority to remove officers the mayor has appointed. A city ordinance giving the council appointment or removal power conflict…
In South Dakota, can a candidate or officeholder pay for childcare or personal security out of their campaign account?
Probably yes, but only when the expense exists because of the campaign or office, not as a personal cost the person would have anyway. SDCL 12-27-50 is silent on these categories, so each expense has …
Under South Dakota's 2025 HB 1130, do counties, cities, and school districts have to hold their elections on a single combined ballot, or can each level run its own ballot on the same day?
They can run separate ballots. HB 1130 only requires the elections to happen on the same date (June primary or November general), not that they share one ballot. 'In conjunction with' is about timing;…
Can a South Dakota city-owned liquor store legally sell THC drinks and other THC-infused products?
Probably not most of what's on the market. SD bans products with more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC, all synthetic cannabinoids, and any hemp product made by chemically converting CBD into THC isomers (Delta-…
When an outside police department asks a South Dakota city's officers to arrest someone in that city, or comes into the city and makes the arrest themselves, what authority is actually in play?
The local officers can act on probable cause communicated to them by another department (collective knowledge doctrine). But the outside department cannot drive into another municipality and make a cu…
South Dakota's new election law (HB 1062) tells the Secretary of State to post the statewide voter registration file online weekly, but another statute says voter registration info can't be put on the internet with unrestricted access. Do those statutes contradict each other?
No. The Secretary of State can satisfy both by posting the file behind a request-form gate: anyone can ask for access by submitting contact info and acknowledging the use restrictions, then gets a one…
Can South Dakota's State Treasurer proactively find owners of small unclaimed property holdings and mail them a check, without waiting for the owner to file a claim?
Yes. The Uniform Unclaimed Property Act says an owner 'may' file a claim, not 'must,' which means the owner's claim is one route but not the only one. The Treasurer is the safekeeper of the property a…
Can a new road district be formed that overlaps with an existing road district? And does the county commission have any say in whether a properly-petitioned road district gets created?
No overlapping road districts: state law doesn't authorize them, and allowing them would double the tax burden on landowners and create administrative conflict. And no commission discretion: if a road…
If an employee of the county State's Attorney's Office runs for a seat on the local school board, does that automatically create a conflict of interest that disqualifies them?
No. SDCL 13-7-3 only disqualifies elected officers or holders of an 'office' whose duties are incompatible with school board service. A Public Information Officer in the State's Attorney's Office is a…
What does South Dakota's video lottery operator law actually require for 'residency'? And does the partnership/corporation majority-ownership rule apply to LLCs and limited partnerships too?
The South Dakota Lottery has to satisfy itself, with whatever investigation is needed, that an applicant actually lives in South Dakota as their permanent home. And the majority-South-Dakota-resident-…
Can a South Dakota State's Attorney who is now a full-time county employee still do private legal work on the side, as long as it's not in state court?
Yes. SDCL 7-16-19 only bars a full-time state's attorney from representing private clients in cases pending in South Dakota state courts. Other private practice (transactional work, federal court matt…
In a South Dakota road district, if I own three parcels of land in the district, do I get three votes? And can I vote absentee in road district elections?
One vote per landowner, no matter how many parcels. Absentee voting is available in formation elections, in initial trustee elections in districts with over 1,000 voters, and in referendum elections. …
Does South Dakota's Athletic Commission have legal authority to regulate slap fighting contests (where two competitors trade open-hand blows to the face)?
No. The Athletic Commission's jurisdiction is limited by statute to boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts. Slap fighting does not fit any of those definitions (no gloves, no fists, no kicks, no w…
Can an individual city council member (alderman) demand to look at a specific city employee's timesheet, and are city employee timesheets public records anyone can request?
No on both. Individual aldermen have no special statutory right to access employee timesheets beyond what any member of the public has. And timesheets are exempt from public disclosure under South Dak…
If you want to pull a piece of land out of a South Dakota sanitary district, how many petition signatures do you need? Is it 20% of all voters in the district, or 20% of votes cast for the top trustee at the last election?
It is 20% of the votes cast for the top vote-getter at the last annual trustee election, not 20% of all district voters. So in a small new district where the leading trustee got 40 votes, an exclusion…
Can a South Dakota city with a home rule charter, like Sioux Falls, switch its municipal elections to ranked choice voting or approval voting instead of a traditional one-vote-per-person plurality system?
Approval voting yes, ranked choice voting no. Chief Deputy McGuigan concluded that approval voting, where voters can mark approval of multiple candidates, fits within SDCL 9-13-25's framework (a runof…
In South Dakota, when residents want to split off part of a township and form a new township, does the petition to start the process need signatures from a majority of the whole original township, or only from a majority of the people in the area that would become the new township?
Only the affected portion. AG Ravnsborg ruled that SDCL 8-1-8(3) requires signatures from a majority of registered voters living in the portion of the township that would actually be split off, not fr…
If a 16- or 17-year-old comes to a South Dakota hospital for a sexual assault exam after being assaulted by their boyfriend or girlfriend, can the medical staff keep the assault confidential because the teen does not want to report it to police?
No. AG Ravnsborg ruled that the mandatory child-abuse reporting statute, SDCL 26-8A-3, requires medical professionals to report suspected sexual abuse of anyone under 18 to law enforcement, the state'…
If one child in a South Dakota family already attends a neighboring (nonresident) school district under open enrollment, must the nonresident district also accept a sibling who needs special education services it cannot provide, just to keep the family in one district?
No. AG Ravnsborg ruled that SDCL 13-28-44 lets a nonresident district deny an open enrollment application for a child who needs special education services the district cannot provide, even when a sibl…
In a South Dakota county that has adopted a comprehensive plan, can the county commission hear variance requests from the county subdivision ordinance on its own, or does the board of adjustment have to handle them?
The board of adjustment handles them. SDCL 11-2-17.1 carves out a different procedural track only for counties that have NOT adopted a comprehensive plan. Pennington County has one, so SDCL 11-2-49 ap…
When someone asks a South Dakota county coroner for a copy of an autopsy report (where the requester is not law enforcement and not the deceased person's next of kin), is the autopsy report a public record that the coroner has to release?
No. Autopsy reports are exempt from the SD open records law under three independent exemptions: SDCL 1-27-1.5(2) (medical records), SDCL 1-27-1.5(5) (law enforcement / investigatory body records), and…
In a South Dakota county that has combined the offices of County Auditor and Register of Deeds into one office under one elected official, when does that official's term begin, the first Monday in January (the Register of Deeds date) or the first Monday in March (the Auditor date)?
The first Monday in January. SDCL 7-7-1.3 specifies that the term of office for a combined county position begins on the first Monday in January following the election. The Buffalo County official ele…
If a South Dakota city signed a ten-year contract for water tower and tank painting in year one plus annual inspections and maintenance in following years at total cost exceeding $150,000, was the city required to put the contract out to competitive bid as a public improvement, or could it skip bidding under either the professional services exemption or the equipment repair contract exemption?
Bidding was required. The AG concluded that painting and maintaining a city-owned water tower is a public improvement under SDCL 5-18A-1(22), so any contract over $50,000 had to be bid regardless of h…
When voters in a South Dakota civil township want to split their township into two new townships, what role does the county commission play, and can the county commission redraw the boundaries of the new townships?
The county commission's role is limited. The commission holds a hearing, notifies voters, and acts in a supervisory capacity. The voters of the affected township make the final decision on whether to …
How much of a township road right-of-way must an adjoining landowner clear of vegetation under SDCL 31-31-2, and when does farming, fencing, or altering the grade of a section-line highway cross the line into illegal obstruction?
SDCL 31-31-2 requires the landowner to clear vegetation from the entire 66-foot right-of-way, to the extent the remaining vegetation can be cut with a mower (not just the shoulder). Farming, fencing, …
Does the South Dakota State-Tribal Relations Committee (created by the Legislature as a forum for issues of mutual concern between the state and tribes) have authority to issue legislative subpoenas to compel attendance of witnesses or production of documents?
No. The State-Tribal Relations Committee is a statutory committee whose authority comes solely from SDCL 2-6-20 et seq. Those statutes do not grant subpoena power, expressly or by necessary implicatio…
Can a South Dakota city create a second business improvement district that overlaps an existing one, does the new overlay need its own separate board, and can hotels within the new BID pass the special assessment through to their guests as a separate line item on the bill?
Yes, a second BID may overlay an existing one (the BID statute repeatedly speaks of 'districts' in the plural). Whether the existing BID board can also serve the second BID depends on whether its memb…
Can a South Dakota town that has never adopted a comprehensive zoning plan or any zoning ordinances create a business improvement district under SDCL chapter 9-55 to fund downtown improvements?
No. SDCL 9-55-4 says a business improvement district has to lie within an established business area that has been zoned for business, public, or commercial purposes. A municipality with no zoning ordi…
When a county commission has voted no to a sheriff's request for a drug dog, can the sheriff accept a privately donated drug dog as a gift to the sheriff's office, and can the sheriff then go around the commission and amend the county's insurance policy to cover the dog?
Yes on the gift, no on the insurance. A sheriff has implied authority to accept gifts directly related to his statutory law enforcement duties, including a trained drug dog. But only the county commis…
Two persistent worries about SD legislative practice: (1) Can SD legislators trade votes ('I'll vote for your bill if you vote for mine')? (2) Can SD legislators use 'vehicle bills' (introducing a bill on one subject and then gutting and replacing the content with something completely different)? Are either of these practices illegal under the SD Constitution, SD statutes, or legislative rules?
Neither is prohibited. (1) Vote trading that does not involve physical violence, coercion, or the exchange of a thing of value is not prohibited by the SD Constitution, SD statutes, or SD legislative …
Does South Dakota's Marsy's Law (Article VI, § 29) reach civil lawsuits, ordinance violations, minor traffic tickets, and Sexual Assault Response Team meetings, or is it limited to traditional criminal and juvenile cases?
Marsy's Law applies only to criminal cases and juvenile delinquency cases as defined by the SD Legislature, and only when an identifiable primary or ancillary victim has affirmatively invoked the righ…
South Dakota voters added Marsy's Law to the state constitution in November 2016. The law gives crime victims a long list of rights, including a right to prevent disclosure of information that could be used to locate or harass them. Now state and local agencies are not sure what to do. Can the police still release motor vehicle crash reports to the public, with names and addresses, the way they always have? Can a daily 'crime log' still show street addresses where crimes happened? Can officers still announce addresses and names over radio traffic? Beadle County's State's Attorney asked these questions; here are the answers.
Yes to all three, with a critical condition: the victim must first invoke the right of nondisclosure. The 2016 AG read the Marsy's Law amendment to require unambiguous invocation of victim rights, by …
When a SD township road runs along the edge of a farm or other private land, who has to control the weeds in the road ditch and right-of-way: the township or the adjoining landowner? And can a township board change the September-1 to October-1 statutory window for when weeds have to be removed?
It depends on the kind of weed. Noxious weeds (the legally-designated ones) are the township's responsibility under SDCL 38-22-22 because the township supervises the road. Everything else (regular gra…
When a Box Elder City Councilperson resigned mid-term and the council appointed a replacement under SDCL 9-13-14.1 'to serve until the next annual municipal election,' did the appointee have to run for retention at the 2016 annual election or at the next regularly scheduled Box Elder election in 2017 (Box Elder's terms were staggered, so no full election was scheduled for 2016)?
The 2016 annual election. The statute said 'next annual municipal election,' not 'next regularly scheduled election.' SDCL 9-13-1 sets an annual election each second Tuesday of April; even if Box Elde…
In 2015, the SD State Board of Education was proposing new Science Standards that drew heavily from the multi-state Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). SD law had just been amended (SDCL 13-3-48.1) to ban adoption of multistate-consortium standards before July 1, 2016. Would adopting these NGSS-influenced standards violate that ban?
Not as a matter of law on the facts presented. The proposed standards were drafted by SD's own Department of Education workgroup, not by an outside multistate consortium, even though the workgroup hea…
When SD's Department of Environment and Natural Resources sends its Geological Survey Program out to drill exploratory bore holes for groundwater and geological investigation, and the chosen location is inside the public right-of-way of a township road, county road, state highway, or federal road, does DENR need to get permission first from the adjacent private landowner or from the road's governing unit of government?
No. SDCL 1-1-10 gives the state geologist authority to enter private property to conduct statutorily-authorized surveys, and SDCL 45-2-4.2 authorizes the geological survey itself. Together those statu…
After SD enacted SDCL 12-19-1.2 in 2013 requiring 46 days of absentee voting, does that 46-day rule apply to municipal (city) elections, or do the smaller 15-day and 7-day periods in SDCL 9-13-21 still control for municipal absentee voting?
The 15-day rule (and 7-day rule for runoff secondary elections) in SDCL 9-13-21 continues to control for SD municipal elections. SDCL 12-1-2 expressly says Title 12 election provisions yield to statut…
If a South Dakota high school student is suspended from sports for a drug conviction and reduces the suspension to 60 school days by completing a chemical-dependency assessment, do summer school days count toward those 60 days?
Yes. If the local school board has established a special summer school term and the student is enrolled in it, the days that instruction is provided count as 'school days' for the 60-day extracurricul…
Can a South Dakota qualified charitable organization run a bingo game at multiple locations simultaneously via video simulcast, with one single prize pool funded by card sales at all the locations together? And does the answer change if multiple qualified organizations jointly run the simulcast bingo?
Yes to both. SDCL chapter 22-25 governs charitable bingo through general requirements (qualified-organization status, no individual benefit, no professional operators, compensation limits, $2,000 maxi…
When a county or township highway intersects with a state trunk highway, whose money pays to maintain the connecting roadway surface that sits within the state's right-of-way? Does the prior history of the connecting roadway (private driveway, then county road) change the answer?
The second or intersecting highway's government pays. Under SDCL 31-24-9 (as amended in 2010), the government entity that owns the second-in-time intersecting highway is responsible for constructing a…
When a SD county has a weed and pest control problem and there are private commercial chemical applicators operating in the county, can the county weed and pest board still enter into a joint powers agreement (under SDCL 1-24-8) with another government agency for weed control work? Or does the existence of private applicators in the county block the county from contracting with the other government and force the county to use the private applicators?
Yes, the county can contract with another government agency. SDCL 38-22-23.11 restricts the county weed and pest board from selling and applying chemicals and poisons when those services are available…
When a SD school district receives money from a will that names the district but does not bindingly direct how the money is used, can the district give that money to a community foundation or to its city to set up a college scholarship program for graduating students?
No. A SD school district can exercise only the powers the Constitution and Legislature give it, and its public purpose is K-12 education (S.D. Const. art. VIII, § 1; SDCL 13-5-1). SDCL 13-14-5 lets a …
When a SD city is building a major public improvement like a community wellness center and wants to hire one firm to manage the project as construction manager-at-risk, can that firm do the warranty work and the fix-up of third-party contractor mistakes itself, or must even those small construction tasks be done by separate contractors? And can a single firm serve as both the architect/engineer and the construction manager-at-risk on a project over $100,000?
On the first question, no: under SDCL 5-18A-1(4), 'construction' is defined broadly to include repair, demolition, and alteration. Warranty work and correction/completion of third-party work both fall…
South Dakota's 2009 SB 119 lets townships, counties, and the state transfer highway rights-of-way to Indian tribes or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In Flandreau Township, a section-line road runs through tribal lands of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. Can the township use SB 119 to give the right-of-way to the tribe or BIA so they'll pave it? What does the transfer agreement need to say? What happens to speed-limit enforcement, criminal jurisdiction, and the township's liability after the transfer? Is there a smarter alternative?
Yes, SB 119 authorizes the transfer, including section-line rights-of-way, to either a federally recognized tribe or the BIA. But the AG flagged so many open jurisdictional, regulatory, and liability …
If an excavator is going to dig at a railroad crossing in SD and calls One Call to find out where underground utilities are, are the railroad company's underground lines (signal cables, fiber, gas lines) marked? Or are railroad companies exempt from One Call membership and the duty to mark, leaving the excavator to find railroad lines on their own?
It depends on what the railroad owns. If the railroad company holds legal or fee title to the land at the crossing, it qualifies as a 'landowner' under SDCL 49-7A-15 and is exempt from the One Call sy…
When an excavator calls One Call in SD before digging near a house and the dig will affect the water service line or sewer service line running from the public right-of-way to the building, whose responsibility is it under SDCL chapter 49-7A to come out and mark the line: the water/sewer utility (operator) or the homeowner (property owner who arguably owns the service line)? And does the One Call locate obligation extend all the way from the right-of-way to the meter (water) or to the building (sewer), or does the homeowner take over at some point?
The utility operator. The operator (not the property owner) must mark both the lines in the public right-of-way and any service laterals extending onto private property within the proposed excavation …
Those coin-pusher or quarter-pusher machines you sometimes see at bars, fairs, and arcades. The player drops a quarter onto a moving shelf hoping to dislodge other quarters or prizes piled up on the shelf. Are these legal amusement devices in SD (subject to the 4% amusement device tax under SDCL ch. 10-58), or are they illegal slot machines and games of chance prohibited by the SD Constitution and SDCL 22-25-13?
Illegal slot machines. Under SD law, an unconstitutional game of chance is one 'wherein chance predominates over skill' (Bayer v. Johnson). Quarter-pusher machines meet that definition. The player dep…
Can the SD Department of Game, Fish and Parks enter into a Walk-In Area Program hunting-access contract with a state legislator who owns hunting land? Specifically, does SD Constitution Article III, § 12 (which bars legislators from being interested in state contracts authorized by laws passed during their term) block the contract when the underlying funding statute was enacted in 1998 and last substantively amended in 2004, and the legislator was in office during the 2004 amendment?
On the facts presented, no. The AG read Article III, § 12's phrase 'authorized by any law passed during the term for which he shall have been elected' to mean the specific term when the authorizing le…
Can the South Dakota Commissioner of School and Public Lands sell a tract of state-owned school or endowment land to a city or a local economic development corporation, knowing the city or EDC plans to lease the land to a private company for a business project? And does 'economic development' count as a 'public purpose' under the statutes that govern these sales?
Yes to both. The 2008 AG read SDCL 5-9-34 and 5-9-35 as allowing sales of up to 160 acres of common school or endowment land to civil, state, religious, or public organizations for 'public purposes,' …
Can a SD city use tax increment financing (TIF) to fund the public infrastructure (streets, curb, gutter, water/sewer mains) in a new residential subdivision, where the city's contribution stops at the infrastructure and individual lot owners pay for their own homes?
Yes. SDCL 11-9-42 says 'No tax increments shall be used for the construction of residential structures.' Reading the words plainly, that statute prohibits using TIF money to actually construct residen…
When a county wants to upgrade a gravel road in an unorganized township by paving it with asphalt, can the county use SDCL 31-13-51 (the up-to-80-cents-per-front-foot special assessment for maintaining or repairing township roads) to pay for the work? And if it could, could the county set up multi-year installment payments using the municipal-financing chapter (SDCL ch. 9-43)?
No on both. SDCL 31-13-51 authorizes an annual front-foot assessment only for 'maintaining or repairing' roads. Asphalt surfacing of a gravel road is an 'improvement' under SDCL 31-13-33 (which specif…
McCook County wanted to require that all land subdivisions inside the county be platted before any deed could be recorded, even though state law (SDCL 43-21-1) only requires platting when a property is divided into parcels that cannot be described except by metes and bounds. The county wanted to direct the Register of Deeds to refuse to record any deed for unplatted land. Could McCook County enact that ordinance?
No. AG Larry Long concluded the proposed ordinance was both ultra vires (beyond the county's statutory authority) and preempted by state law. Counties in South Dakota have only the powers the Legislat…
South Dakota water project districts (special-purpose political subdivisions formed under SDCL ch. 46A-18) are funded by tax levy or special assessment, and bond elections need 60% approval. The TLC Water Project District wanted to know who actually gets to vote in those bond elections. Do 'registered voters' have to also be landowners? Do landowners voting on special assessments have to be registered voters, or residents of the district? After 1998 statutory reorganization muddied the rules, district presidents needed a clear answer.
The 2006 AG separated the two voter groups. For bond elections funded by tax levy: registered voters of the district were eligible to vote, and they had to be residents of the district, but they did N…
When does a South Dakota felon get the right to vote back: at release from prison, at the end of the original court sentence, or at parole completion? Does a suspended imposition of sentence count as a conviction that takes away voting rights? What does a former inmate actually have to do to register again?
Voting rights come back when the full sentence is discharged, not when the inmate walks out the prison gate. A suspended imposition of sentence does not count as a conviction at all (because the court…
By 2004 the City of Watertown was seeing more and more electric scooters: kick-style two-wheeled platforms, electric mopeds, motorized-bicycle-looking devices, some capable of 38 mph. Riders of all ages were using them on public and private property. Watertown's city attorney wanted to know whether these things could legally be driven on the public highways of South Dakota.
Mostly no. AG Lawrence Long classified all electric motor scooters with two or three wheels as 'motorcycles' under SDCL 32-20-1(3), which expressly includes scooters with platforms in addition to scoo…
South Dakota sold the state cement plant in 2001. The voters that year added Article XIII §§ 20 and 21 to the state constitution to protect the proceeds: $238 million was placed in a trust fund, $12 million transfers annually to the general fund, and if the trust's market value grew enough above the original principal, additional money could be appropriated for the support of education. By 2004 the trust had grown, but no one had ever made the additional 'support of education' distribution before. The Bureau of Finance and Management wanted to know: what's the right valuation date, how does the Legislature actually appropriate the money, and what happens if the trust value drops between when we measure it and when the Legislature acts?
AG Lawrence Long approved the Bureau's proposed framework. The June 30 market valuation date was right because Section 21 limits distribution to amounts that maintain the original principal 'in that f…
South Dakota conservation officers (the GF&P uniformed wildlife law enforcement officers) routinely walk onto private farms and ranches to check licenses and look for game violations, without first getting a warrant and without the landowner's permission. Is that constitutional? Is it criminal trespass? The GF&P Secretary wanted a definitive answer.
Constitutional, and not trespass. The 2004 AG ruled that conservation officers may enter privately owned open fields without probable cause, reasonable suspicion, consent, or a search warrant in the p…
If the Lead/Deadwood School District received Deadwood gaming proceeds in January 2003 for the 2002 calendar year, but did not qualify for state school aid during 2002 and only qualified for partial aid in January-June 2003, could the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs offset the entire gaming payment against the partial 2003 aid? How far across fiscal or calendar years could that offset reach?
Yes to the offset, and the offset was not capped by the year boundary. The AG read SDCL 42-7B-48.2 literally: gaming receipts reduce 'any general state aid otherwise payable' dollar-for-dollar, with n…
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Attorney general opinions in South Dakota are written by the South Dakota Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.