The South Dakota Legislature will meet for a final time during the regular 2021 legislative session on
Monday, March 29th to consider Governor Noem’s veto of HB 1217. Under article 4, subsection 4 of the South
Dakota Constitution, the Governor of South Dakota can veto bills that do not appropriate money one of two ways,
she can kill the bill out right, or she can veto it by suggesting that there are “errors in style or form”. Governor
Noem has returned House Bill 1217 to the legislature, utilizing the option of “errors in style or form” under the veto
authority provided to her in the constitution. That is not the end of HB 1217, as the legislature can override the
Governor’s claim that there are errors in style or form.
What does “Errors in Style or Form mean”? An error in style or form veto is intended to allow the Governor the
opportunity to correct errors in:
1) The customary manner by which a legal language is drafted, formatted, organized, or enrolled;
2) The nomenclature or established manner of expressing or conveying legal language; and
3) Edits or corrections that are clerical, organizational, or grammatical in nature.
***Style and form does not include any alteration of legislative intent or substantive policy.
House of Representatives Speaker Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham, SD) says, “After consulting many legal scholars
across the state of South Dakota, it is unanimous that the Governor’s proposal is outside of her constitutional
authority as the recommended changes are clearly substantive. I will be recommending that the House of
Representatives rejects Governor Noem’s proposal as unconstitutional. We will then send HB 1217 back to her
desk, giving her one more opportunity to do what’s right for women’s sports in South Dakota by signing it. Let’s
join the existing coalition of states that have passed similar legislation like Idaho, Mississippi, Tennessee, and most
recently Arkansas.”
With a simple majority of the members elect in the House of Representatives, the proposed changes in the errors in
style or form veto can be rejected, at which point Governor Noem can choose to sign HB 1217, making it the law, or
to Veto it, killing the bill altogether. In South Dakota history, there were two situations where then Governor Bill
Janklow, 1981 and 1985, signed legislation after issuing an errors in style or form veto that the legislature ultimately rejected.