Demonstrating the depth of his legal acumen (the phrase “short dipstick” comes to mind), Speaker Jon Hansen (R-25/Dell Rapids) responds to U.S. District Court Judge Camela C. Theeler’s overturning of his petition-deadline-earlying 2025 House Bill 1184 not with detailed legal analysis but with partisan dog-whistle bitching and moaning:
In a statement to South Dakota Searchlight via text message Tuesday, Hansen said Theeler “got this wrong,” and he called her a “Biden appointed federal judge.” While Theeler was appointed during the Democratic presidency of Joe Biden, she was confirmed 90-4 by the U.S. Senate, with yes votes from South Dakota’s Republican U.S. senators John Thune and Mike Rounds [Seth Tupper, “Judge Blocks South Dakota from Enforcing Earlier Ballot Question Petition Deadline,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.09.02].
Fine, Jon. Get the state to appeal on your behalf. Take your case to the Eighth Circuit, where the last time South Dakota tried to defend a petition deadline earlier than May, three federal judges shot down the state’s appeal, and those judges were appointed by Bush, Bush II, and Trump.
Judges left, right, and center agree: Jon Hansen is full of crap.
When Republicans try to excuse their lawlessness and unconstitutional behavior, the go-to boilerplate phraseology always involves “Biden this” or “Obama that.” No one, except the cult takes that seriously. Later in his statement to South Dakota Searchlight Hansen justifies stripping citizens of First Amendment rights because their SLAP suits dragged on too long. I mean, really, how many of these mimeographed anti-First Amendment lawsuits have to be smacked down before they figure out that their hopelessly bureaucratic process added by the Legislature is at fault.
It would be nice to work with Rep. Hansen on a solution to de-bureaucratize the initiative process. About the only pre-petitioning step needed is to have citizens go through the LRC for final initiative writing.