A police officer sued to challenge the legislation, at the behest of the governor, whose lawyers are helping the challenge (at a cost to the public). And it was heard by a judge appointed by the same governor. We do love our representative democracy, don't we folks.
The concerted effort across many states in recent years to render any attempts to legislate by referendum impossible have been a terrifically effective effort to erode direct democracy in this country.
The crazier thing is that this was a single topic referendum. The judge is claiming that because marijuana effects, for example, both commerce and transportation "that counts as multiple topics."
Did they ban all amendments lmao
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They can pull any justification they want out of their ass.
It was bad enough when direct democracy didn't work under capitalism because, as California has repeatedly demonstrated, the electorate is so thoroughly propagandized to as to be completely incapable of acting against corporate interest - but this shit is pure anti-democracy. They might as well write a law that says "we get to nullify anything we want to na na na boo boo."
Well most people don’t give a fuck anyways. Usually it’s met with very little protest. Especially in a state like South Dakota.