I am no lawyer, but I am surprised that more people are not upset that the South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg has not resigned. He made history, the bad kind, when he became the first constitutional officer in South Dakota to be impeached by the South Dakota House of Representatives. This controversy revolved around him hitting and killing a pedestrian with a car, then not reporting the incident until the next day.
It is a case like this one that calls into questions the ethics of the legal profession, and the Republican Attorneys General Association in particular, at a time when many Americans see rules for elites differing from the rules imposed on average Americans.
Look no further than mask mandates that only seem to apply to regular people, yet not to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Joe Biden. Those two leaders were at an event last week to swear in a new Supreme Court Justice, and they were maskless. Pelosi later tested positive for Covid-19, yet the spokesman for the Biden Administration claimed that all protocols were followed. I guarantee that any event with politicians and constituents these days will not allow regular people anywhere near a politician without a mask, yet politicians going maskless is excused by federal politicians who believe the rules don’t apply to them. We are also seeing a similar double standard play out today in South Dakota.
The Ravnsborg case has become national news because of the unusual fact pattern in his case. The Argus Leader reported on April 12, 2022, “according to the South Dakota Highway Patrol, Ravnsborg's vehicle left the roadway prior to striking Boever, who'd been walking along the shoulder of Highway 14 near Highmore in the nighttime hours of Sept. 12, 2020.” The police tasked with investigating the accident found him “distracted” and that he “was not forthcoming about what caused the distraction and indicated he may have seen Boever's body prior to leaving the crash scene.” Nobody was alerted to the death of the pedestrian until the following morning when “Ravnsborg reported discovering the body after returning to Highmore to drop off a loaner vehicle he used to get home the night prior.” It appears that the South Dakota House of Representatives is not buying the story of Ravnsborg and is believing the police investigators.
The South Dakota public safety department also discovered some disturbing details. Craig Price, Cabinet Secretary for the SD Department of Public Safety wrote the Speaker of the SD House, Spencer Gorch on March 9, 2022, that “in interviews with investigators, AG Ravnsborg verbally indicated that he had seen Mr. Boever at the time of the impact, and again in the aftermath of the crash, before quickly correcting himself.” That is damning information that might have helped many South Dakota Republican members of the House to vote for impeachment.
The impeachment is not a partisan issue evidenced by the fact that the House voted 36-31 for impeachment in a body that consists of 62 Republicans and 8 Democrats. Republican elected officials in South Dakota supported the measure, yet the Republican AG seems to be digging in for a fight when the impeachment moves to the next phase in the South Dakota Senate. That body is broken down 35-3 Republican versus Democrat.
If you are following the news, the day Ravnsborg was impeached the New York Lieutenant Governor resigned after being arrested in a bribery case. He stepped down after the governor called for his resignation. Many in South Dakota have asked the same of the South Dakota Attorney General with different results.
One would think, at a minimum, Ravnsborg would be put on probation or suspended from the Republican Attorneys General Association pending a resolution of this controversy. If you thought that, you would be wrong. To date, no action has been taken by a group that proclaims they are in the business of “Defending the Rule of Law.” At a minimum, Ravnsborg should be put on the sidelines of being a member because of the appearance of impropriety.
It drives Americans crazy when they see one set of rules applied to them and another set of rules applied to elected politicians. One would think that an ethical Attorney General would resign in shame if there were any allegations of misconduct that surfaced to keep the office of Attorney General above reproach. To date, this is not the case.