American Oversight Sues South Dakota Governor for Records of Noem's Expenses (2022)
americanoversight.org

... On Tuesday, American Oversight sued the Office of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and the state's Department of Labor and Regulation (DLR) for failing to release public records about expenses related to Noem's activities while in office.

The lawsuit seeks information related to Noem's travel expenses, including five out-of-state taxpayer-funded trips. The suit also seeks records of any legal costs incurred by taxpayers from the alleged forced retirement of the director of South Dakota's Appraiser Certification Program following Noem's intervention in her daughter's application for a state appraiser license.

In May, American Oversight submitted a records request to the Office of the Governor seeking records of costs associated with five trips taken by Noem early in 2022, including several with overtly partisan destinations, such as a Conservative Political Action Conference event in Florida and a state Republican Party convention in New York.

Under South Dakota's Sunshine Law, the public has a right to access government records, including "any state ... expenditure involving public funds." While the law contains a narrow exception for sensitive security information, the request submitted by American Oversight specifically excluded records of "costs related to Governor Noem's security associated with this travel."

But in June, the governor's office refused to release any expense records at all, claiming that allowing the public to see any details of Noem's travel spending would create a security risk, without explaining why it wasn't able to redact only specific information that might reasonably be described as security-related. American Oversight followed up later that month with a formal request, which was again denied. ...