South Dakota

September 26, 2008: Worried about protecting jurors' personal information, the South Dakota Supreme Court last week decided all records created during jury selection should not be available to the public unless the trial judge says otherwise.

Presiding circuit judges across the state proposed the change as they grew increasingly concerned about identity theft and the potential that someone would embarrass jurors by distributing their answers to sensitive questions. Read the full article here.

Kudos to Pierre for records Web site
September 16, 2008: Up is down, black is white, and the state of South Dakota has a new Web site collecting copious amounts of public information.

OK, maybe that's a flip response to something that is in fact a real victory for free and open access to government: the state's new OpenSD Web site.

But South Dakota's record when it comes to government openness is not the best. The Legislature has yet to pass a truly comprehensive open records law - one that presumes openness and then lays out reasonable exceptions. Read the full editorial here.

Open records law amended
July 12, 2008: South Dakota media and public officials sometimes bump heads on access to government records.

Reporters have a tendency to believe that nearly all records should be open to the public.

Officials are not so sure about that, and the two sides occasionally disagree. Read the full article here.

Transparency & Government

• Ten point checklist for statewide organizations
• South Dakota government corruption
• South Dakota Transparency Legislation

School Districts

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• South Dakota Department of Education
• South Dakota School Spending

FOIA Laws

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• Past FOIA requests in South Dakota

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