South Dakota Republicans want state attorney general to rule on constitutionality of Biden's executive orders

A bill submitted by a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives would authorize officials in the state to review all executive orders signed by President Joe Biden and rule on their constitutionality before implementing any directives contained in them.

According to a report from the Daily Wire, the "Act to authorize the review of certain executive orders issued by the President of the United States," designated as House Bill 1194, was authored by State Rep. Aaron Aylward (R) with an eye of taking a hard look at the flurry of actions coming out of the Oval Office; many of them reversing executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump during his one term in office.

According to NPR, Biden has now signed 28 executive orders since replacing Trump -- the single largest amount in the brief time he has been in office since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The bill explicitly states executive orders would be subject to "a review by the Executive Council of the Legislative Research Board, followed by a referral from the Council to the attorney general and the governor," after which "Once the referral has been made, the attorney general may examine the order to determine whether the state can seek an exemption or declare it unconstitutional."

That would allow current Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R) to exempt citizens of the state from any directive that "restricts a person's rights or that is determined … to be unconstitutional," the Daily Wire is reporting.

The report notes that executive orders relating to "a pandemic or other public health emergency, the regulation of natural resources, the regulation of the agricultural industry, the regulation of land use, the regulation of the financial sector through the imposition of environmental, social, or governance standards and the regulation of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms," would be subject to review.

The bill would likely meet with the approval of Gov. Kristi Noem (R) who has been an ardent opponent of federal recommendations on how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic despite her state being ravaged by it.

You can view the bill (pdf) here.