A federal judge in South Dakota has issued a temporary restraining order telling Lawrence County officials to stop limiting where those circulating initiative petitions can gather signatures.
South Dakotans for Health is circulating petitions to put abortion rights and elimination of the grocery sales tax on next year’s general election ballot sued the county earlier in the week over the issue.
Lawrence County adopted a policy in March 2020 that bans petition circulators from speaking with voters and collecting signatures on the sideway at the main doors of the county administration building and courthouse.
The group’s lawsuit filed Tuesday argues that the restrictions violate their First Amendment rights, and federal District Judge Roberto Lange agreed in a ruling against the policy released Friday.
He wrote “on initial blush appears to be overly restrictive and prevents petition circulators from peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights to which they are entitled on public or traditionally public forums around this kind of government property.”
The temporary restraining order expires in 2 weeks, long enough to hold an evidentiary hearing and a hearing on a more long-term injunction. No date has been set for either as yet.