On November 1, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion in Dakotans for Health v Noem, 21-2428. The opinion agrees with the U.S. District Court, and says the U.S. District Court had been correct to enjoin some restrictions on paid initiative circulators in South Dakota. The challenged law requires paid petitioners to disclose their name, residential address, email address, phone number, and sex offender status prior to circulating any ballot measure. It requires that all this information be put into a publicly available directory. It voids all signatures collected by any circulator who does not obey this law. And it requires that if any information changes, the circulator must update the information within seven days.
The decision is by Judge L. Steven Grasz, and is also signed by Judges David R. Straus and Jonathan A. Kobes. All are Trump appointees. Here is the 17-page opinion. Thanks to Derek Muller for this news.
I think this is a wise decision. The South Dakota legislature needs to respect its state’s initiative process, not wiggle out of it. Not every state has the Initiative, you know.
The judges drop a hint that maybe the state could just require the petitioners to disclose their state of residence. Cuz I guess if many of them were from out-of-state, South Dakotans might want to know that. But I dunno.
I’m glad they were all Trump appointees. We need a lot more of those and we’ll get a lot more starting in 2025