This is a legislative resolution from the 2023 session that proposes to change outdated male-only references to South Dakota’s governor and other officials in the state constitution and statutes.
The Attorney General’s explanation offers the following example: When referencing the governor, instead of saying “he shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the state,” the text will be changed to read “the Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the state.”
The amendment also includes references to officeholders such as lieutenant governor, Supreme Court justices, and Circuit Court judges, as well as general classes of people such as persons, electors, and public officers.
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“South Dakota has a long history of strong female representation in all three branches of government, and the Constitution should accurately reflect these esteemed members of our government,” Sen. Erin Tobin, R-Winner, wrote in favor of the amendment as part of the Secretary of State’s ballot question pamphlet.
Rep. Liz May, R-Kyle, took the opposing view, stating that Amendment E represents an “unnecessary change” to constitutional language.
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“The reference to ‘he’ in our Constitution is simply a singular pronoun,” May wrote. “The historic use of generic male pronouns in our constitution is proper style and form and clearly does not exclude or hinder women from holding public office. While this seems like a minor change now, opening up the constitution in order to correct pronouns will not accomplish anything substantive, but will cost taxpayer dollars to reprint materials that are already effective in their current form.”
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit news organization. Read more in-depth stories at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as they’re published. Contact reporter Stu Whitney at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: South Dakota voters to decide Amendment E male-only language change
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Publish date : 2024-09-22 22:03:00
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