South Dakota’s Noem launches legal strategy to take on Biden

R&I – FS

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem catapulted onto the list of conservative politicians favored by former President Donald Trump with her libertarian approach to the pandemic. With the virus waning, she may be seeking to stay there by picking some legal fights sure to please the right.

In recent weeks, Noem has gone to court to challenge President Joe Biden’s administration for blocking an Independence Day celebration with fireworks at Mount Rushmore. She also joined a lawsuit from several states against the administration over climate change regulations — one of the only plaintiffs who doesn’t hail from a state heavily dependent on fossil fuels.

Noem says she’s simply acting in the state’s interests, but the tactic has given her a chance to cast herself as one of Biden’s most prominent foes. She went on Fox News to announce the lawsuit over Mount Rushmore fireworks, and later joined star host Sean Hannity for a podcast titled “Noem vs. Biden.”

Noem told Hannity the only way “to get fairness on this issue” was to sue the Biden administration, and cast it as a fight not just for South Dakota but also for “our nation and the ability to celebrate our independence the way that our founders encouraged us to.”

Instead of entrusting her attorney general with the lawsuits, Noem has filed them herself by tapping a state legal fund that has historically been used to defend against lawsuits, not launch them. Noem is taking a role usually played by the attorney general — she is the only governor to be listed alongside attorneys general from nine other states in the climate regulations lawsuit. In the Mount Rushmore lawsuit, Noem has the backing of Republican attorneys general from 16 other states.