Last month Lawrence County appeared ready to admit that its policy banning petition circulators from the main entrances to its courthouse and administration building in Deadwood was overly restrictive. After ballot question committee Dakotans for Health secured a temporary restraining order against the policy in June, the county’s private attorney, Rebecca Mann, promised in a July 7 email to D4H attorney Jim Leach that the county would continue to obey the TRO after its expiration and allow petition circulators broader access to the county government campus while the county worked on drafting a new policy.
But a month later, instead of producing a new petitioner policy, it looks like Lawrence County wants to go to war. On Thursday, August 17, after an agreement with plaintiffs to extend their time to respond by a couple weeks, Lawrence County filed an answer to the original complaint. The county does not go into detail, complaining that they haven’t had an opportunity to conduct any discovery (even though they’ve basically sat on this complaint for nearly two months), but it broadly denies the plaintiffs’ allegations and lays down a basic line of defense for its restrictions on petition circulation—the policy is “a content neutral, reasonable time, place, and manner restriction that is narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest.” Lawrence County asks the court to dismiss the complaint and make Dakotans for Health pay for the county’s legal bills in this lawsuit.
U.S. District Court Judge Roberto A. Lange yesterday (August 18) ordered the parties to conduct a Rule 26(f) meeting by September 17. Rule 26(f) calls for the parties to discuss their claims and defenses, consider settlement, develop their discovery plan, and map out how long they think discovery and depositions and the trial itself will take. The parties get two weeks after their meeting to report the results to the court, which could take us to October 1. Arranging an actual trial may take several weeks after that.
Dakotans for Health reported this week it may have more than enough signatures to submit its Codify-Roe petition in November. But Dakotans for Health is also circulating a petition to repeal South Dakota’s sales tax on food, and other groups are circulating initiative petitions for open primaries and Legislative term limits. Those groups may be joined on the sidewalks by a few other brewing initiative movements, so even if the Roe petition drive ends before the Lawrence County circulator restrictions go to trial, there are plenty of petitions and petitioners who will be hoping for a positive First Amendment ruling to make permanent Lawrence County’s July promise not to boot petitioners from the front doors of its government buildings.
I have been having a back-channel discussion with a legislator who has been targeted by the far white Natvig/Ravnsborg wing of the SDGOP in LawCo. Suffice it to say they’re freakin’ nuts.
The District numbered 31, Lar, is an unholy trinity union of two beasts and one half-man. Mr. Diebert is a swell enough fellow, they say, on most things, mining related at least.
Larry, are those Natvig/Ravnsborgers pushing the county to fight the D4H lawsuit?
Yes, they’re also aligned with Travis Ismay.
They are targeting BHSU, too. These are the same people who assailed Mike Rounds when he was in Spearditch.
https://www.bhpioneer.com/local_news/complaints-to-bhsu-from-noem-hotline-investigated/article_f9646cd0-3dff-11ee-9e65-c375d586f059.html
I am actually shocked at the level of division in my old stomping grounds.
Can’t she find something better to do? KN and Mr Fboy are so annoying when they’re bored with twirling their hair. Go check your fence for snagged raptors please. Quit bitchin at our universities. Take an etiquette class…. in Paris.
So, Rebecca Mann lied in her email that Lawrence County was looking at drafting a new policy? That apparent lie was presented to Attorney Leach and Judge Lange. Where is the new policy? Why shouldn’t Ms. Mann be pulled in by the Judge to explain why she has been lying about developing this new policy? She has a lot, I mean, A LOT, to explain about the legal shenanigans she is up to.
I had a hunch that Mann was pulling something, as I stated in the comments section of Cory’s post linked below:
https://dakotafreepress.com/2023/07/14/lawrence-county-promises-to-allow-petitioners-to-do-democracy-in-front-of-government-buildings/
There is something deeply anti-South Dakotan about what is going on with these shenanigans. People have a Constitutional right, especially in South Dakota, to petition.
Lawrence County taxpayers paying for this or is it the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance? If it is the SDPAA , then Minnehaha County is paying an outsized portion of the bill.
Read in your best voice of PFC Gomer Pyle, USMC, “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!!
Attorney Mann set herself up for a bar complaint or ethics complaint . . . because, in part she failed to control her client. The Lawrence County Commission is the law unto itself. They know better than any pesky constitution or federal judge in far off SuFals. Randy (Double Dipper) Diebert and the rest of the commissioners freely spend the public’s money. They are building an expanded unneeded jail – and to fund it, in part, by hosting federal transient prisoners. Taxing, mooching, and spending is the name of their game. Then adding insult to injury, the taxpayers will pay for their lawsuit.
Double Dip Diebert is apparently behind the “study” to create a regressive sales tax authority for the counties. God forbid they do something progressive like an income tax. https://www.bhpioneer.com/eedition/page-02/page_e2e4f2f1-a202-5c16-97e6-663aa134670a.html
Lawrence County presents itself as a Libertarian stronghold but has always been governed by right wing totalitarians. It could be a great place to live, but isn’t. Mob Rule. Expect a lynching any day.
I have not found LawCo to ever demonstrate enough organization to muster a lynching.
Dilly Deibert has a contract with the Sanford lab isn’t that a conflict of interest? Why did they only attack Castleberry? Deibert is still a commissioner. Asking for a friend.
SD Republicans – even more so the lower down the authoritative hierarchy one goes – ignore the part of the state motto that states “…..the People Rule”. They are of the mindset that the government rules, and by government they mean those in office. Never mind the law, or the people (or rather all THOSE people).
They shooed me off when I was getting signatures to get on the 2022 ballot. It didn’t prevent me from getting the needed signatures.
If that’s their policy, why fuss? There are plenty other public places to get signatures.
Outside the doors of public buildings are the areas reserved for cigarette and marijuana smokers.
If petitioners are allowed to set up there, the next thing you know, they’ll be complaining about second-hand smoke, and demanding the smokers go someplace else.
People with medical marijuana permits will start complaining that the petitioners are interfering with their medical treatment. It will get ugly. The people trying to get signatures to repeal medical marijuana might even resort to fisticuffs.
There isn’t room for everybody on the courthouse steps. The petitioners need to go somewhere else, just to keep the peace.
Mark Mowry, “They shooed me off…? Who is “they?” It amazes me that people willingly accept a government that violates their bedrock constitutional rights. Did you not know what your rights are? Maybe you shouldn’t be running for office if you don’t know or can’t accept the right of people to petition for redress of grievances.
Algebra- aren’t you worried someone will find your crazy wall/evidence board you put together to come up with all that?… awkward. It must have taken a lot of yarn and meth to bring it all the way back full circle with the Ismay scenario.
People who believe it is worth the struggle to fight for all our constitutional rights and aren’t willing to just back down are the reason we haven’t been ground into pathetic wannabe dust. Backing down one iota relinquishes entire rights that make us citizens of a free country. Thats for punks and I am grateful there are a few still left taking on the fascistic sorry excuse for a small town South Dakota government hack job.
Government offices,/buildings,/facilities/stoops and so on are the property of the people, not the government officials. As noted above, the conservative mindset (at least when they are empowered by a title – or “entitled”) has difficulty accepting that reality.
If that’s their policy, why fuss? There are plenty other public places to get signatures.
Policies do not trump the constitution. All gubmint buidings belong to the public because they are paid for with taxes. You have a right to publicly accessible areas of any gubmint buildings, including military institurions, unless it is specifcally restricted in writing.
Who are they on the Lawrence County Board of Commissioners?
Leslie, these are Republicans under pressure from their constituents to make it as difficult as possible for progressive causes to prevail. If you have a Faceberg account start with Travis Ismay and follow the trail of nuts.