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Bill Requires State Motto On Official Merchandise With State Seal

Lee Strubinger
/
SDPB

Any official or commercial replica of the state seal must include the state motto, “Under God The People Rule.”

That’s what a bill that’s headed to the state House floor sets in place.

One lawmaker brought the legislation when she noticed some inconsistencies on an embroidered shirt for legislators.

House Bill 1102 requires consistent representation of the state seal for any official and commercial purposes.

Representative Sue Peterson brought the bill. She says when she ordered an official legislator shirt something was missing -- the state motto.

“Through the process we learned that it was because of some equipment needs at the women’s prison, who does the embroidery for us,” Peterson says. “We also worked with the Secretary of State, who is the keeper of the seal. They indicated that they didn’t have the power in this case or other cases to enforce this.”

Prison officials told her they didn’t have equipment at the time to sew the motto onto a small patch.

The bill makes violation a Class 1 misdemeanor. Peterson says that’s consistent with other violations of the seal in the code. She says it give the Secretary of State power to enforce the law.

But there were some free speech concerns surrounding the bill.

Libby Skarin is with the ACLU in South Dakota. She says the way the bill was originally drafted left the door open to criminalizing free speech.

“Per it’s plain terms, if someone were to make a satirical seal, or do an artist representation of it, the plain terms of that bill could have allowed the government to bring them up on misdemeanor charges,” Skarin says. “We worked with the sponsor and the bill was amended to address those concerns, and says the bill is not intended to limit in any way artistic expression or satirical expression.”

Skarin says the amendment takes care of any concern about infringing on speech or overstepping by the government.

Representative Peterson says it was not her intent to impact free speech.