Representative Spencer Gosch (R-23/Glenham) reverses his usual Republican tack of supporting Legislative ballot questions that take away South Dakotans’ rights and sponsors House Joint Resolution 5001, which would put on this year’s statewide ballot a constitutional amendment to forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development. HJR 5001 would ask voters to add this crucial clause to Article 6 Section 13, South Dakota’s constitutional provision for eminent domain:
Eminent domain may not be exercised for the purpose of transferring private property to a non-governmental entity solely to promote economic development or increase tax revenue without the provision of a public use, purpose, or utility [2026 HJR 5001, proposed addition to SD Const. Article 6 Section 13, filed 2026.01.13].
HJR 5001 goes well beyond the voluble resistance to carbon dioxide pipelines that overturned a pipeliner bill of rights and replaced numerous Republican incumbents with more radical right-wing legislators in 2024 and prompted passage of a statutory ban on eminent domain for carbon-capture pipelines in 2025. (Too bad this outrage against eminent domain didn’t bubble up against the Keystone oil pipeline 16 years ago.) One of the new legislators elevated to power in that 2024 landowner uprising, Rep. Gosch’s neighbor and Senate prime sponsor Senator Mark Lapka (R-23/Leola), says we need stronger protection against corporate predation on property rights:
“Codified law is too easily amendable over time,” Lapka said. “It’s the constitutionally protected rights that hold firm forever.”
The amendment would “eliminate eminent domain for private gain,” Lapka said, while allowing for public works projects such as public highways, water lines and other infrastructure [Meghan O’Brien, “Property Rights Coalition Proposes More Limits on Eminent Domain in South Dakota,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.01.12].
This is a rare occasion when the Legislature proposes a constitutional amendment to protect individual rights rather than weaken them. I hope legislators and voters alike jump at this opportunity to weaken the power of big-money interests to tempt government into taking away property just for the promise of corporate profit and tax revenue. As Senator Lapka says, we should limit eminent domain to projects that provide direct public benefit.
So, how is it that Republicans are militantly divided over the utility of eminent domain for private enterprise for pipelines to move CO2 but are just fine with employing it for the entrepreneurial transport of oil and gas?
In 2012 and 2013 ONEOK drove piplelines through sage grouse habitat in eastern Montana and Wyoming with little pushback from residents even though a segment of a newly-built high pressure TransCanada gas pipeline exploded 20 miles west of Gillette, Wyoming. In 2018 ONEOK drove yet another gas pipeline that runs parallel to its existing ones right through at least 23 prehistoric sites near Devils Tower National Monument, some of which are archaeological treasures eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Even though the US Army Corps of Engineers is required to perform archaeological surveys of major river and stream crossings imagine these projects going through cemeteries where people of European descent are buried.
In southwestern Minnesota Pipestone National Monument is still an oasis but now it’s surrounded by Earth hating Republicans, glyphosate-saturated cornfields and overkill concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs.
Imagine these projects going through cemeteries where people of European descent are buried.
Gosh Spencer, what a poet you are. “Eliminate eminent domain for private gain.”
Pretty good.