South Dakota Supreme Court revives legal challenge to abortion vote

Justices resist micromanaging court calendar

The South Dakota Supreme Court Friday revived an anti-abortion group’s lawsuit to stop a November ballot measure that would legalize abortion here.

The state’s High Court reversed a decision of Circuit Court Judge John Pekas, who ruled last month that Life Defense Fund should have filed a writ of quo warranto against the secretary of state instead of filing its case against Dakotans for Health, the author of the proposed constitutional amendment at the center of the litigation. A writ of quo warranto against the secretary of state would have challenged the office’s legal authority to place the measure – Amendment G – on the ballot.

But in a brief ordering the reversal issued to Pekas, Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote that the lower court judge erred when he ruled that Life Defense Fund should have challenged the secretary of state’s authority. Participating in the order were the Court’s four other justices.

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