A lawsuit challenging a South Dakota abortion rights measure will play out after the election

Jack Dura
·2 min read

An anti-abortion group's lawsuit to invalidate an abortion rights measure appearing on South Dakota's statewide ballot won't be resolved until after the November election.

Media reports of an apparent disconnect between attorneys and the Second Judicial Circuit over scheduling of the trial — initially set for Sept. 23-27 — led the court to issue an advisory with a timeline of judge assignments in the case. A hearing on the Life Defense Fund’s motion for summary judgment is now set for Dec. 2, weeks after the Nov. 5 election.

The release describes how, over about two weeks, the case was reassigned from Judge John Pekas after he learned of his wife’s need for surgery. However, the case then was assigned back to him after another judge was removed from the case.

In a statement, Life Defense Fund spokesperson Caroline Woods said both parties were surprised the trial was not going to happen next week.

“After an immense amount of preparation, Life Defense Fund is deeply disappointed that we are not allowed to provide our evidence to the court,” she said.

Dakotans for Health co-founder Rick Weiland said, “I think for us the bottom line is that through this whole process and just trying to stop the voters of South Dakota from weighing in, and they've been unsuccessful every step of the way, and now their hope was to have a trial during the height of the election, and that's not going to happen. ... We're going to have a vote, not a trial.”

Life Defense Fund alleged a mix of wrongdoing by petition circulators in its effort to kill the measure, which would place abortion rights in the state constitution.

South Dakota outlaws abortion as a felony crime, with the only exception to save the life of the mother, under a trigger ban that took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

South Dakota is one of nine states where voters will decide ballot measures enshrining abortion rights this fall. In all seven states where the issue has previously been on the ballot, voters have sided with abortion rights.

___

Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.

Jack Dura, The Associated Press

Latest Stories

  • Donald Trump Banned From Nation’s Secrets by Defying Ethics Laws

    President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House could be a bumpy ride because he has not pledged to avoid conflicts of interest, among other ethical concerns, while in office. The New York Times reported that Trump’s transition team missed the Oct. 1 deadline to submit an ethics plan in accordance with the Presidential Transition Act. What’s more is NYT reported that Trump’s assembled transition team has refused to participate in the established transition process, usually beginning mon

  • Adam Kinzinger Shares His 'Honest To God' Thoughts About Trump Win

    The former House Republican got "absolutely" clear about what he called a right-wing "narrative."

  • Ex-Obama Adviser Snidely Boils Down Harris Defeat To 1 Faction Of Democratic Party

    David Axelrod provided an unflattering description of what Democrats have become, saying this led to Kamala Harris' loss in the presidential election.

  • Van Jones on Trump win: ‘It turned out we were the idiots’

    CNN pundit Van Jones says Democrats’ media strategy is a major reason Vice President Harris lost this week’s presidential election to former President Trump. “We got beat because the conservatives and Republicans built a different media system,” Jones said on the channel Thursday. “It had to do with online, had to do with podcasts, with…

  • ‘Ice maiden’ Susie Wiles’s demands for accepting top Trump White House role revealed

    Wiles – described by Trump himself as the ‘ice maiden’ – was appointed as his chief of staff on Thursday

  • People Are Sharing Stories Of Trump Supporters Who Voted Waaaay Against Their Own Interests, And It's Wild

    "I actually had a Trump voter say to me today 'he’s not really gonna get rid of the ACA right? My wife and I both have plans through it.'"

  • The 2024 Election May Have One More Surprise

    The 2024 election may have one last card to play: the House of Representatives, where a majority hasn’t been called for either party. The overwhelming likelihood is that the House will follow the national electorate and give Republicans a majority again, confirming unified government under President-elect Donald Trump. The Associated Press, whose calls Barron’s relies on, has projected that of the 435 House seats, Republicans have won 211 versus 199 for Democrats.

  • CNBC Host Fumes At Anthony Scaramucci, Asks If He's 'Embarrassed' By His Trump Take

    Joe Kernen wasn't having it with the former White House communications director after he knocked Donald Trump's rhetoric.

  • Trump's Former National Security Adviser Offers Sage Advice

    John Bolton imparted some words of wisdom for Donald Trump’s next national security advisor. Trump is currently in the process of putting an eclectic team together for his second term, with his son Don Jr. implying that admission to the cabinet relies on blind adherence to the soon-to-be President’s “message.” Bolton held the post of national security advisor to Trump before being fired in 2019, and shared his list of must-dos on CNN on Friday.

  • Trump Demands Action Against His Enemies After Rumors of a Truth Social Selloff

    Donald Trump’s presidential victory on Tuesday night has apparently had no sobering effect on his penchant for urging law enforcement to take down his enemies. On Thursday morning, the president-elect emphatically swore that he has no intention of selling off shares in his social media platform, Truth Social, and demanded that authorities investigate anyone who suggested otherwise. “There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or sho

  • Rudy Giuliani Says He’s Too Broke to Buy Food Amid Defamation Suit Struggle

    Rudy Giuliani has alleged that he doesn’t have enough money to feed himself after a federal judge ordered him to start paying the $148 million judgment he faces for defaming Georgia poll workers in the wake of the 2020 election. The former New York City mayor and close ally to Donald Trump took to X to whine about his fiscal woes and beg followers to donate to his fundraising campaign. “Wilkie Farr Law firm and Judge Liman are trying to inhibit me from making a living,” he wrote. “They seized my

  • The Mysterious Erasure of ‘Mamacita’ Kimberly Guilfoyle

    Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle may have been the only woman in the world more somber than Vice President Kamala Harris following Tuesday’s election results—and all the contouring in the world couldn’t hide it on her face. Though dressed the part in MAGA red, Guilfoyle appeared to be the odd woman out as she joined the Trump clan onstage Wednesday to celebrate President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in Palm Beach, Florida. And Don Jr. seemed to be making sure she felt it. The scene:

  • Nancy Pelosi Is Back Trashing Biden for Kamala Harris Fiasco

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she expected an open primary to take place after President Joe Biden’s exit from the race, instead of a Kamala Harris endorsement. Pelosi, who spoke to The New York Times podcast The Interview this week, said that things might have been different if an open primary had occurred. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi said in the interview, which will be released on Saturday.

  • Bill Maher Has Blunt Message for Democrats After Shocking Election Loss: ‘Look in the Mirror’ | Video

    Maher says Trump won in part because "this country has had enough of the anti-common sense woke bulls---" during Friday's episode of "Real Time" The post Bill Maher Has Blunt Message for Democrats After Shocking Election Loss: ‘Look in the Mirror’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

  • Trump says Haley, Pompeo will not join second administration

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not be asked to join his administration. "I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation," Trump posted on social media.

  • Sunny Hostin stokes tense fight on “The View ”for asking“ ”'what's wrong with America?' after election: 'Voters are the problem?'

    Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin staunchly opposed Hostin's assessment, with Haines cutting Hostin off twice to firmly ask that she be able to finish her point.

  • Elon Musk Plays Secretary of State as Trump Calls Zelensky

    Elon Musk signed onto a Wednesday phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky that the Ukrainian president described as “excellent.” Musk’s surprising involvement in the conversation, first reported by Axios, hints at just how influential the world’s richest person, who emerged as a close and powerful ally for Trump in the run-up to his election victory, may be to the new administration. Musk has been floated as a possible candidate for a Trump Cabinet position, and the president-elec

  • ‘It‘s Gonna Be Hysterical!’ Jesse Watters Says of Watching Trump’s Proposed Mass Deportations

    Jesse Watters revealed his very unique sense of humor while talking about Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportations. The President-elect has a vision to remove around 11 million people from the country, and said this week that no level of expenditure would stop him from seeing it through. “You have no choice,” Trump reportedly said of his plan, adding that there “is no price tag” to equal the value of the biggest mass deportation in U.S. history.

  • Trump's shunning of transition planning may have severe consequences, governance group says

    A good-governance group is warning of severe consequences if President-elect Donald Trump continues to steer clear of formal transition planning with the Biden administration — inaction that it says is already limiting the federal government’s ability to provide security clearances and briefings to the incoming administration. Without the planning, says Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, “it would not be possible" to "be ready to govern on day one.” The president-elect's transition is being led by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

  • Jon Favreau: Team Biden Secretly Knew Trump Would Crush Him

    Pod Save America host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau said Friday that before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July, his campaign’s internal polls showed Donald Trump beating him in a rematch with at least 400 electoral votes. Favreau also blamed the Biden camp for simultaneously downplaying polls showing the president was unpopular. “He and his inner circle, they refused to believe the polls. They refused to believe he was unpopular. They refused to acknowledge until