The Attorney General of South Dakota is the

state attorney general The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states, of the federal district, or of any of the territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney gen ...

of the U.S. state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

. The attorney general is elected by popular vote to a four-year term and holds an executive position as the state's chief legal officer. In 1992, the voters approved a Constitutional Amendment to limit all constitutional officers and the governor to two consecutive four year terms.

Structure of the office

The South Dakota Attorney General's Office represents and provides

legal advice Legal advice is the giving of a professional or formal opinion regarding the substance or procedure of the law in relation to a particular factual situation. The provision of legal advice will often involve analyzing a set of facts and advising a ...

to agencies, boards, and commissions of the government of South Dakota. The office represents the state in

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

and federal court, as well as in administrative

adjudication Adjudication is the legal process by which an arbiter or judge reviews evidence and argumentation, including legal reasoning set forth by opposing parties or litigants, to come to a decision which determines rights and obligations between the p ...

and

rulemaking In administrative law, rulemaking is the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or ''promulgate'', regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more de ...

hearings. The office handles

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that res ...

criminal appeals, advises local

prosecutors A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

in the conduct of criminal

trials In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribun ...

and handles cases at the request of local prosecutors. In addition, the office issues formal opinions interpreting

statutes A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made ...

for the agencies and political subdivisions of the state.

History

Within South Dakota, the office of attorney general is often considered a stepping stone to the office of

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. Six attorneys general

Coe I. Crawford Coe Isaac Crawford (January 14, 1858 – April 25, 1944) was an American attorney and politician from South Dakota. He served as the sixth Governor and as a U.S. Senator. Biography A native of Volney, Iowa, Crawford graduated from the Universi ...

(won 1904 & 1906),

Merrell Q. Sharpe Merrell Quentin Sharpe (January 11, 1888 – January 22, 1962) was an American politician from Kennebec, South Dakota. Affiliated with the Republican Party, Sharpe was the attorney general of South Dakota from 1929 through 1933, and governor of S ...

(won 1942 & 1944; lost 1946), George Theodore Mickelson (won 1946 & 1948),

Sigurd Anderson Sigurd Anderson (January 22, 1904December 21, 1990) was the 19th Governor of South Dakota. Anderson, a Republican from Webster, South Dakota, served in that office from 1951 to 1955. Early life and education Anderson was born at Frolands Verk ...

(won 1950 & 1952; lost 1964),

Frank Farrar Frank Leroy Farrar (April 2, 1929 – October 31, 2021) was an American politician who was the 24th governor of South Dakota. A Republican from Britton, he served as the state's attorney general from 1963 to 1969, and as governor from 1969 to ...

(won 1968; lost 1970) and

Bill Janklow William John Janklow (September 13, 1939January 12, 2012) was an American lawyer and politician and member of the Republican Party who holds the record for the longest tenure as Governor of South Dakota: sixteen years in office. Janklow had the t ...

(won 1978, 1982, 1994 & 1998) have each been elected governor. While six others, Robert Dollard (lost 1892), Mark Barnett (lost 2002), Buell Jones (lost 1928), Leo Temmey (lost 1942), Phil Saunders (lost 1958), and Marty Jackley (lost 2018), have run for governor unsuccessfully. Attorneys General and former Attorneys General have a record of 13 wins and 9 losses in running for Governor. A graduate of the University of South Dakota School of Law had held the office of Attorney General from 1959 until 2022. South Dakota has the second longest streak of Republican Attorneys General in the country, dating back to 1975 (Nebraska has had Republican Attorneys General since 1951).

List of attorneys general

;Parties

Elections

The voters of the U.S. State of

elect an attorney general for a four-year term. The winning candidate is shown in bold.

References

External links

South Dakota Attorney General
official website
South Dakota Attorney General
articles at ''ABA Journal''

at

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* ttp://law.justia.com/codes/south-dakota/ South Dakota Codified Lawsat Law.Justia.com
U.S. Supreme Court Opinions - "Cases with title containing: State of South Dakota"
at

State Bar of South Dakota

South Dakota Attorney General Marty J. Jackley profile
at

National Association of Attorneys General The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of state and territory attorneys general in the United States. NAAG is governed by member attorneys general, with a president and executive committee se ...