Lawmakers from both parties hold a joint press conference at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre regarding the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Vondracek, Forum News Service
PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) –South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s impeachment proceedings will be the first time the constitutional process is tested in the state.
Article 16 of the state constitution governs the process of removing high-ranking state officials. Its origins date back to the time of statehood.
The State House holds the sole power to implement impeachment proceedings. The state Senate is empowered to try a case.
A majority of the members elected in the House first must approve articles of impeachment; 36 of 70 members in the 2021 session.
The process in the Senate looks very much like a court proceeding with rules of due process defining the timeline.
The Senate is prohibited from hearing the case for at least 20 days after the notice of impeachment is served upon the impeached state official. Rules of evidence, discovery, and subpoena power are all available as the Senate hears the case.
Section 5 of Article 16 requires the impeached state official be “suspended from duties” from the time between impeachment and acquittal. The same section goes on to state, “No officer shall exercise the duties of his office after he shall have been impeached and before his acquittal.”
A Senate conviction requires at least a two-thirds majority vote. If convicted, the state constitution requires “removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of trust or profit under the state.”
Article 16 was last reviewed and modified by voters in the mid-1970s.
It has never been invoked but was briefly discussed by lawmakers in 1935 after Governor Tom Berry used state guardsmen to break up a strike in Sioux Falls. Berry lost his re-election bid in 1936.
(Patrick Callahan, South Dakota Broadcasters Association, contributed this report.)
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