State v. Whitmarsh was a South Dakota Supreme Court case decided on November 18, 1910, which asked whether or not fellatio, or oral sex, should be classified as sodomy.

The court ruled that fellatio was an "abominable and disgusting" crime against nature and outlawed it between any two persons, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation or age.

On February 1, 1909, the court found Whitmarsh guilty and sentenced him to three years imprisonment in the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

As in the Vicknair decision, the South Dakota Supreme Court questioned why "the use of the mouth should not have been considered as much against nature as though the act were committed per anum.

Instead, the court cited an Illinois statute, applied in Honselman v. People, which included the phrase "crime against nature" instead of the word "sodomy."

"[2] The opinion closed with a quote from Herring v. State, a similar case tried in Georgia, which reflected the South Dakota Supreme Court's final decision: After much reflection, we are satisfied that, if the baser form of the abominable and disgusting crime against nature—i.e., by the mouth—had prevailed in the days of the early law, the courts of England could well have held that the form of the offense was included in the current definition of the crime of sodomy.