On Thursday, federal Judge Camela C. Theeler denied the state’s motion to stay her injunction against its unconstitutional February deadline for submitting initiative petitions. The state wanted to suspend Theeler’s injunction against enforcing 2025 House Bill 1184 and keep the February 3, 2026, deadline in effect while its longshot appeal works its way through the Eighth Circuit. Judge Theeler responded that the state has failed to show that its appeal is likely to succeed and a stay is thus not warranted.
The initiative petition deadline thus remains May 5, 2026, six months before the general election.
With the permanent injunction in place, Secretary of State Monae Johnson cannot carry out, implement, or enforce the February deadline our anti-democratic Legislature passed last winter. Two weeks ago, Secretary Johnson was flouting that injunction by telling citizens on her website that the deadline for submitting petitions was still February 3.
Evidently alerted to that violation, the Secretary of State’s office has revised two ballot question-related pages—”Ballot Question Information” and “Potential 2026 Ballot Questions” to state that the deadline is May 5 (with an asterisk and warning that “The current May 5, 2026 deadline is subject to litigation and may change”).
However, Secretary Johnson continues to violate the court’s injunction with “How to Submit and Circulate a 2026 Statewide Initiated Measure or Constitutional Amendment Petition,” her office’s detailed and colorful five-page guide on the initiative petition process. Last updated April 28, 2025, the document still declares the initiative petition deadline is February 3, with no asterisked mentions of pending litigation.
Curiously, the document cites 2023 Senate Bill 113 as the source of the deadlines listed. However, that bill was the Legislature’s response to the last court case the state lost over petition deadlines, when the state surrendered to Judge Charles Kornmann’s logic that six months before the election was the earliest constitutionally allowable deadline for initiative petitions. 2023 SB 113 set the deadline as the first Tuesday in May.
More curiously, on page 3, the Secretary invokes Article 23 Section 1 of the South Dakota Constitution as the source of the deadline for submitting completed initiated amendment petitions. Article 23 Section 1 says nothing about that deadline.
Secretary Johnson evidently needs to bring in an expert (psst—I’m available!) to revise her legal citations. But more importantly and urgently, Secretary Johnson needs to bring all of her documents and initiative guidance into compliance with the court order on petition deadlines. The deadline for submitting initiative petitions for this election cycle is May 5, 2026. Asterisk it all you want with mentions of the state’s futile litigation to thwart democracy, but strike every reference to the illegal February deadline.
She’s a wannabe, they live different dimensionally.