South Dakota
SD Senate narrowly advances bill requiring posting and teaching of Ten Commandments in schools • South Dakota Searchlight
PIERRE — The South Dakota Senate voted 18-17 on Tuesday at the Capitol to advance a bill mandating public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and teach their historical significance.
The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Sen. John Carley, R-Piedmont, proposed the legislation.
“These are historical principles that have been used in the tradition and founding of America,” Carley said.
Opponents characterized the bill as a violation of the federal First Amendment constitutional principle of separation of church and state, and as a burdensome, unnecessary mandate.
Sen. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, a former public school teacher, said schools already have the option to display the commandments. They are also required to display the national motto, “In God We Trust,” due to state legislation adopted six years ago.
“I’m sitting here in a room full of people that believe in smaller government, less government,” Smith said, referring to the Republican-dominated state Senate. “And we’re making a mandate.”
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The bill would require 8-by-14-inch posters with “easily readable font.” Schools would have to additionally display a three-part, roughly 225-word statement near the posters containing information about the commandments’ historical significance.
The legislation would replace existing language in state law allowing local school boards to choose to display the Ten Commandments.
The bill would also require the Ten Commandments to be taught as part of history and civics classes three times during a student’s education — at least once during each of the elementary, middle and high school years. Additional provisions in the bill would require instruction on the state and federal constitutions, the federal Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.
The bill would require the Ten Commandments to be presented “as a historical legal document, including the influence of the Ten Commandments on the legal, ethical, and other cultural traditions of Western civilization.”
Carley said displaying and teaching the commandments would instill a moral grounding in students.
He pointed to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which he said upheld public religious displays rooted in tradition. The ruling upheld a football coach’s post-game prayer as protected free speech and religious expression, emphasizing it was personal, voluntary and non-coercive.
Sen. Lauren Nelson, R-Yankton, said the South Dakota bill is not coercive.
“It’s not about forcing people to believe a certain way, but about understanding where we came from as a country,” Nelson said.
Video of a Jan. 28, 2025, debate in the South Dakota Senate about legislation that would mandate the teaching and display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. (Courtesy of South Dakota Public Broadcasting)
Sen. Red Dawn Foster, D-Pine Ridge, unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would have allowed schools to substitute a list of Native American values for the commandments.
She said many Native Americans view the bill as perpetuating the historical policies of federal boarding schools, where Indigenous children were forced to speak English, convert to Christianity and forsake their own cultural practices.
Carley replied that he didn’t see any documentation that the list of Native American values proposed for inclusion by Foster had an “influence on the foundation of America.”
Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, is a lawyer. He raised the specter of lawsuits, pointing to ongoing litigation against a similar law in Louisiana. That state became the first to enact a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms.
“It’s a guaranteed lawsuit,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler did not vote in favor of the bill, but he did convince senators to add an amendment that would require the state attorney general to defend any lawsuits arising from the legislation at the state’s expense, rather than burdening local school districts.
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RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Students at South Dakota Mines heard Wednesday from retired four-star general Maryanne Miller about her journey to the highest ranks of the U.S. military.
Miller is a retired four-star U.S. Air Force general. She is the only member of the Air Force Reserve ever to be promoted to this level.
She spoke about finding greatness and living a life of fulfillment. Her stories came from her time in the Air Force and as a volunteer for Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity.
“We so much get focused on what is our next step in life, what’s the next career move, how do we make ourselves better in our career, and we forget about how do we make ourselves better as a human being,” Miller said. “Because they have to go tandem. If it’s not tandem, you’re going to get off track.”
Miller was commissioned in 1981 and rose through the ranks before becoming a four-star general in 2018. She was the only woman serving as a four-star officer in the military at the time. She retired in 2020 after serving for almost 40 years.
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South Dakota
USDA to offer distaster assistance to South Dakota agriculture producers impacted by winter storms
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering financial and technical assistance to South Dakota farmers and livestock producers who may have been impacted by the recent winter storms.
“I encourage impacted producers to contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and learn more about program options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.” said Richard Fordyce, Production and Conservation Under Secretary.
FSA’s Emergency Conservation Program and Emergency Forest Restoration Program can assist landowners with financial assistance to restore damaged land and conservation structures or forests.
“Our staff will work one-on-one with landowners to make assessments of the damages and develop methods that focus on effective recovery of the land.” said Jessica Michalski, Acting NRCS State Conservationist in South Dakota.
For more information about the disaster assistance program, click here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, left, and Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen unveil a plaque for retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams in the Hall of Honor at the Capitol in Pierre on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — There’s a new name in the South Dakota Hall of Honor at the state Capitol building.
One-hundred-year-old South Dakota native and retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams was celebrated at a Wednesday ceremony where a plaque honoring him was unveiled, although Williams did not attend.
“In spite of being outnumbered and facing incredible danger, Captain Williams engaged the enemy with courage and skill,” said Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden. “Our state has always had a strong tradition of service, and Captain Williams is the very best of that tradition.”
President Donald Trump awarded Williams the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, at the State of the Union address earlier this year. The medal honors actions by Williams that had been classified for decades.
“His story was secret for over 50 years, he didn’t even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew,” Trump said during the speech in February. “But tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
On Nov. 18, 1952, over Korean coastal waters during the Korean War, then-Lt. Williams, from Wilmot, South Dakota, led three F9F Panthers against seven Soviet MiG-15s. He disabled three enemy jets and damaged a fourth.
The Soviet jets, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, were “superior to the F9F in almost every fashion.” The mission was the only direct overwater combat between U.S. Navy fighters and Soviet fighters during the Cold War.
Williams, one of 11 Medal of Honor recipients from South Dakota, now lives in California. The Hall of Honor at the South Dakota Capitol is located in the hallway that visitors enter immediately after going through security.
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