Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, participates in a debate on Feb. 4, 2026, at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE — South Dakota lawmakers have rejected one bill to increase penalties for disrupting worshippers and advanced another.
Both are reactions to a recent protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, against the federal government’s immigration enforcement actions in the Twin Cities.
One bill, introduced by Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, R-Aberdeen, lost Wednesday in the House on a 21-48 vote. The other, sponsored in coordination with the governor by Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, and House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, passed in the Senate on the same day with a 30-4 vote.
Mehlhaff’s legislation will be heard by a House committee next. It increases the punishment for any person “who, by threat or violence, intentionally prevents another person from performing any lawful act” associated with religion.
Doing so is currently a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year of county jail time and a $2,000 fine. The bill would raise the penalty in that existing law to a felony, making it punishable by two years in state prison and a $4,000 fine.
“There are conflicting First Amendment rights to protest. You also have the First Amendment right to practice your religion,” Mehlhaff told the Senate on Wednesday. “This is to address when those things clash.”
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Republican Sen. John Carley, of Piedmont, cast one of the four votes against the bill.
“I like the concept here, but I’m just worried it might have some unintended consequences,” Carley said. “A felony is a very serious penalty, and it should be reserved for very serious things.”
Schaefbauer’s bill would have created a new felony crime of entering or remaining in a place of worship with the intent to “menace or harass congregants or employees,” or for “the purpose of political intimidation” or “the incitement of fear of violence in those attending.” It also would have protected the 50 feet around a house of worship an hour before and after services.
The crime would have been a felony punishable by up to five years in state prison and a $10,000 fine.
Rep. Peri Pourier, R-Rapid City, initially voted in favor of Schaefbauer’s bill in the House Judiciary Committee, but changed to a “no” vote Wednesday.
“What happened in Minnesota, I would bet anybody my whole paycheck that it would never happen in South Dakota,” she told the House Wednesday. “Not only do we have the laws on the books, we also have different cultures.”
At the protest last month in Minnesota, demonstrators disrupted a church service while protesting the operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resulting in arrests and federal charges. A pastor of the church works for ICE, which has had thousands of agents in Minnesota conducting enforcement actions for weeks. While operating in the state, federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January.
