[4][5] In 2023, Representative Linda Duba introduced a bill to repeal the statutory ban and explicitly define marriage as the union of "two persons".
[6] On May 22, 2014, six same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit against South Dakota officials seeking the right to marry and recognition of marriages performed in other jurisdictions.
The suit, Rosenbrahn v. Daugaard, was brought by Minneapolis civil rights attorney Joshua A. Newville, who filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of seven same-sex couples in North Dakota on June 6, 2014.
The state defendants argued she was bound by the Eighth Circuit's decision in Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning, which the plaintiffs said did not address the questions they were raising in this case.
She found that Baker v. Nelson is no longer valid precedent and that Bruning did not address due process or the question of a fundamental right to marry.
The Eighth Circuit announced on April 29, 2015, that it would defer consideration of the case, pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in June 2015.
Bishop Paul J. Swain of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls called the ruling "not a surprise but still a sad development".
The South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated the decision, "Today's historic Supreme Court ruling means same-sex couples will soon have the freedom to marry and equal respect for their marriages across America.
"[15] In January 2020, Representative Tony Randolph introduced a bill to prohibit the state from "enforcing, endorsing or favoring" same-sex marriage.
The ACLU responded in a statement, "Marriage equality is the law of the land in South Dakota and the entire nation, no matter what half-baked legal theories anti-LGBTQ lawmakers try to put forward.
[20] While there are no records of same-sex marriages as understood from a Western perspective being performed in Native American cultures, there is evidence for identities and behaviours that may be placed on the LGBT spectrum.
Many of these cultures recognized two-spirit individuals who were born male but wore women's clothing and performed everyday household work and artistic handiwork, such as beadwork and quillwork, which were regarded as belonging to the feminine sphere.
Some wíŋkte practiced polyandry, taking up to twelve husbands, while others remained unmarried, erecting their own tipis where they were visited by men for sexual intercourse.