Appellate Courts for South Dakota
The South Dakota Supreme Court is the only appellate court for state court proceedings in South Dakota and it handles appeals from the state trial courts. The SD Supreme Court typically releases new opinions on Thursdays of each week.
Appeals from federal courts situated in South Dakota are handled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. The 8th Circuit issues decisions daily, but most of its decisions tend to be related to decisions issued by federal courts sitting in the other six states encompassed by this Circuit, which are Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota.
The United States Supreme Court sits above both the South Dakota Supreme Court and the 8th Circuit. It rarely handles cases that originated in a court proceeding in South Dakota.
Recent Decisions
In the 10 days preceding the preparation of this report, there were no new decisions by the South Dakota Supreme Court and 3 decisions from the 8th Circuit related to South Dakota. They are summarized as follows:
In U.S. v Henry (1/21/2026), the 8th Circuit upheld a prison sentence of 70 months for a Defendant who was convicted by jury of firearm and escape offenses. The trial of this case took place in the Southern Division (Sioux Falls) of the U.S. District of South Dakota.
In U.S. v Farmer (1/26/2026), the Defendant was sentenced to prison for failure to register as a sex offender. Defendant served his sentence, but having been placed on “supervised release,” his status was revoked three times. In the most recent revocation proceeding, the trial court sentenced Defendant to 24 more months in prison. The 8th Circuit affirmed this decision. The trial of this case took place in the Northern Division (Aberdeen).
The 8th Circuit also affirmed the trial court’s decision in a dispute concerning the Freedom of Information Act in Walsh v Dept. of Navy (1/26/2026). This matter involved a request made by Captain Rory Walsh to the Department of the Navy and was resolved in the Southern Division. Both the lower court and the 8th Circuit ruled against Captain Walsh.
More Information: Anyone desiring to communicate with the Author or desiring to obtain a copy of one of these new decisions may do so by sending an e-mail to the author atrogermbaron@gmail.com
About the author: Roger Baron graduated from law school in 1976. He practiced law in Missouri for 9 years and then became a law professor. He has been a law professor for the past 40 years. He retired from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 2015, at which time he was bestowed with Emeritus Status. As part of an ongoing service commitment to the South Dakota legal profession, Professor Baron provides prompt summaries of new appellate court decisions to more than 330 lawyers and judges in South Dakota.
About this Column: This Column is designed to provide readers with similar summaries, in non-legalese language, and to also provide a forum for other observations (notes) about relevant legal issues.Â
