South Dakota

This guide was authored by Zivile Raskauskaite, Skye Lucas, and Sara George, working with Professor Jared Schroeder at the Missouri School of Journalism. Grant support for this project was provided by the Society to Protect Journalists and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. 

Anti-SLAPP protection: South Dakota does not have an anti-SLAPP law.

Helpful cases:  South Dakota has never had an anti-SLAPP law, nor has any court in the state explicitly cited SLAPP-related concerns in a decision. The following case, however, indicates how a state court handled a lawsuit against a news organization.

• Krueger v. Austad, 1996 S.D. 26 (1996): Plaintiffs sued the author of letters to the editor published in a newspaper that made negative statements related to plaintiffs’ transfer of ownership of a company from the husband (a state senator) to his wife for a government benefit, alleging defamation.  The trial court granted summary judgement to defendants, and the Supreme Court of South Dakota affirmed.  The court found that all plaintiffs – the senator, his wife, and their company – were limited purpose public figures who needed to prove actual malice, and failed to do so.  The court further found that the challenged statements were protected opinions rather than actionable statements of fact.
  

Legislative activity: South Dakota lawmakers considered an anti-SLAPP bill in 2007. The bill was never voted out of a House committee.