Supreme Court questions if it has authority to answer Kristi Noem's conflict questions

The legislator conflict questions posed by Noem might get sidestepped by Court

PIERRE – Justices on the South Dakota Supreme Court expressed skepticism on Monday about whether it would be appropriate for the Court to issue an advisory opinion into questions Gov. Kristi Noem posed about lawmaker conflicts.

Noem last year asked the Court to consider nine scenarios in which a lawmaker might run afoul of a constitutional provision barring them from having a direct or indirect interest in a state contract. Although the Constitution gives the governor the power to require opinions on questions of law and the exercise of executive power, Justice Mark Salter noted that the nine questions seemed to address “individual concerns.” He asked Katie Hruska, Noem’s general counsel, whether those questions could be synthesized by the Court into a broader question.

Hruska responded that the governor was looking for the Court to establish “guideposts.”

“The nine questions posed are the ones most often received by our office, and the ones we hear the most concerns about,” Hruska said.

Later, Salter noted that it’s difficult in the absence of fact-based litigation to issue blanket answers because the facts of each case might be different.

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