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South Dakota Supreme Court

Highest court in the U.S. state of South Dakota

Summary

Highest court in the U.S. state of South Dakota

Field	Value
court_name	South Dakota Supreme Court
image	South_Dakota_Supreme_Court_Seal.png
imagesize	220px
caption	Seal of the South Dakota Supreme Court
established	1889
jurisdiction	South Dakota
location	Pierre, South Dakota
type	Missouri Plan
authority	South Dakota Constitution
appealsto	Supreme Court of the United States
terms	8 years
positions	5
website	Official Website
chiefjudgetitle	Chief Justice
chiefjudgename	Steven R. Jensen
termstart	January 5, 2021
termend	2028

The South Dakota Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of South Dakota. It is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices appointed by the governor. One justice is selected from each of five geographic appointment districts. Justices face a nonpolitical retention election three years after appointment and every eight years after that. The justices also select their own chief justice.

The Supreme Court of South Dakota serves as the final appellate court in the state, reviewing the decisions of state circuit courts. The Supreme Court is also authorized to issue original or remedial writs and provide advice to the governor regarding the scope of executive powers.

The court also provides administration for South Dakota's unified court system, preparing and submitting the judiciary's annual budget, appointing court personnel, and generally supervising the circuit courts. The court is also charged with making the rules covering practice and procedure, administration of the courts, terms of courts, admissions to the bar, and discipline of members of the bar within the state of South Dakota.

History

Territorial court

The Supreme Court of the Dakota Territory was established in Yankton, South Dakota in 1861. It was the first Territorial Supreme Court in American history. Initially, justices were appointed directly by the President of the United States. The first court consisted of three justices: Philemon Bliss, Lorenzo P. Williston, and Joseph L. Williams, appointed by President Abraham Lincoln. The court heard no cases until December 3, 1867.{{cite web | access-date = February 15, 2015 }} In 1879 the court enlarged to four justices, then six in 1884, and eight in 1888.

Statehood

In 1889, the Dakota Territory was split into North Dakota and South Dakota, and the Territorial Supreme Court was formally dissolved by President Benjamin Harrison. Bartlett Tripp served as the last Chief Justice of the Dakota Territory. He left the court in 1889 upon South Dakota's statehood and to become the 25th United States Ambassador to Austria.

An election was held in South Dakota to select the first state supreme court. Justices Dighton Corson, Alphonso G. Kellam, and John E. Bennett were elected and sworn-in October 15, 1889. Since there was no capitol building yet for the new state, the oath-taking ceremony took place on the Hughes County courthouse veranda.{{cite web | access-date = February 15, 2015 }}

The court was forced to use the county courthouse until 1891 when it began holding court in the state legislature's senate chambers. The South Dakota Supreme Court did not receive its own chambers until the autumn of 1905.{{cite web | access-date = February 15, 2015 }}

Modern day court

In 2002, Judith Meierhenry was appointed by Governor William Janklow as the first female Supreme Court Justice. She served until her retirement in 2011. In 2014, Janine Kern was appointed by Governor Dennis Daugaard. At the time of her appointment she was the only Justice on the South Dakota Supreme Court to not receive admission via diploma privilege. In 2017, she was joined by Steven R. Jensen who sat for the bar exam in 1988.

Districts

Candidates for selection as Justices for the South Dakota Supreme Court come from one of five Appointment Districts. These districts follow county lines as follows:

District 1

Custer
Lawrence
Meade
Pennington

District 2

Minnehaha

District 3

Bennett
Brookings
Brule
Buffalo
Fall River
Haakon
Hand
Hughes
Hyde
Jackson
Jerauld
Jones
Kingsbury
Lake
Lyman
Mellette
Miner
Moody
Oglala Lakota
Sanborn
Stanley
Sully
Todd
Tripp

District 4

Aurora
Bon Homme
Charles Mix
Clay
Davison
Douglas
Gregory
Hanson
Hutchinson
Lincoln
McCook
Turner
Union
Yankton

District 5

Brown
Butte
Campbell
Clark
Codington
Corson
Day
Deuel
Dewey
Edmunds
Faulk
Grant
Hamlin
Harding
Marshall
McPherson
Perkins
Potter
Roberts
Spink
Walworth
Ziebach

Justices

Main article: List of justices of the South Dakota Supreme Court

Supreme Court justices

The current justices of the South Dakota Supreme Court.

District	Name	Chief term	Term ends	Law school
4	, Chief Justice	2021–present	2028	(R)	South Dakota
2		–	2030	(R)	South Dakota
3		–	2030	(R)	Virginia
5		–	2032	(R)	Rutgers-Camden
1		–	2028	(R)	South Dakota

References

[http://ujs.sd.gov/uploads/pubs/bluebook.pdf ''Unified Judicial System of South Dakota''] {{webarchive. link. (2014-04-11 , South Dakota Supreme Court, rev. July 2002)
"Supreme Court Home". South Dakota Unified Judicial System.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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