One of the barriers that South Dakota found itself facing in the run up to the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg as a result of what took place in September of 2020 is that South Dakota had never impeached a state official before, so much of it was made up as they went along.
In fact, they found that there was little guidance from impeachment which had happened in other states, making it a further outlier.
In an effort to provide both background and guidance for others in the future should the need arise, State Senator and Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck has submitted an article for publication to the South Dakota Law Review with the Knudson School of Law at USD, which has been accepted.
After getting clearance to share the article, as it is in the publication process and will be appearing shortly, Senator Schoenbeck was gracious enough to share it with SDWC readers.
(If you’re quoting the embedded article, please give attribution to the South Dakota Law Review).
There’s an error in footnote 54 on page 10. Hope the Law Review editors caught it prior to publication. It’s a good “pracademic” article on the process and the law. I’m sure the lawyers and legal researchers would want more info on practices in other states and how applicable they might have been, if at all. I’m sure the non-lawyers won’t appreciate the 133 footnotes in 27 pages (just under 5 footnotes per page, on average).
I also note that one reason for the discrepancy between the Senate and House costs associated with impeachment is likely attributed to Pennington County paying Mr. Vargo’s salary for his impeachment trial duties, while the House apparently paid all its legal costs directly.