A South Dakota judge ruled Monday that a voter-approved constitutional amendment that would have legalized marijuana for recreational use was in itself unconstitutional, establishing a legal struggle facing the governor. Kristi Noem
Kristi Lynn Noem The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Biden, GOP senators begin talks; The others follow the path: the Republican Party is divided by the growing anti-democratic drift of the Idaho party advances the constitutional ban on legalizing marijuana in the state MORE (R) against their own voters.
Circuit Court Judge Christina Klinger, appointed by Noem to Pierre, ruled that Amendment A violated a rule that voting measures cover only a single issue and does not conform to the rules governing the way how the state constitution is amended.
South Dakota voters passed Amendment A, which legalized recreational marijuana, with a margin of 54% to 46% in November. An independent voting measure legalizing medical marijuana was passed with nearly 70% support.
South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the group that supported the amendment, pledged to appeal Monday’s court ruling.
“We disagree with the ruling and are preparing our appeal to the South Dakota Supreme Court,” the group said in a statement.
The state attorney general’s office, Jason Ravnsborg (R), who is in charge of defending state laws, said Tuesday he was still reviewing the judge’s decision. Ravnsborg’s lawyers had moved to launch the challenge earlier this year.
Noem, a first-term Republican governor who closely allied himself with the former President Trump
Donald TrumpDOJ to demand the resignation of the majority of U.S. lawyers appointed by Trump: denounce Trump’s lawyer withdrawing request not to hold Kinzinger’s dismissal trial on Saturday in calls for GOP gentlemen to convict Trump of dismissal, has unusually focused on opposing the amendment, both during the campaign and after voters approved the measure. The lawsuit challenging the validity of the amendment was filed by the head of the state Highway Patrol, who sued at the request of Noem, and the Pennington County sheriff.
Noem has authorized the state to pay the court costs incurred by Highway Patrol Superintendent Rick Miller. Last month he issued an executive order that explicitly gave Miller the legal capacity to sue.
If Amendment A went into effect in July, South Dakota would be the fifteenth state to legalize marijuana for recreational use and the 13th state in which voters themselves passed a voting measure to make marijuana legal.