FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Tuesday, December 21, 2021

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg has joined a multi-state lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s overreaching COVID mandates. The suit led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, takes aim at the President’s unlawful requirements of masks on toddlers and COVID-19 shots for staff and volunteers in Head Start Programs.

“Like the other efforts of the Biden Administration to impose medical decisions on Americans and South Dakotans this mandate to mask two-year-olds and vaccinate teachers will cost jobs and impact child development,” said Ravnsborg. “This overreach would negatively impact working families and single parents across our state.”

Head Start provides much needed resources to underserved children and their families. The program provides early childhood education and resources, including diapers, to families. Teachers, contractors, and volunteers in Head Start Programs being forced “vaccinated” by January 31 will cost jobs and programing.

The states allege that the Head Start Mandate is not only beyond the Executive Branch’s authority, contrary to law, and arbitrary and capricious; but it also violates the APA’s Notice-and-Comment Requirement, the Congressional Review Act, the Nondelegation Doctrine, the Tenth Amendment, the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, the Spending Clause, and the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 1999.

Joining Attorneys General Ravnsborg and Landry in Louisiana, et al. vs. Becerra, et al. are the Attorneys General from Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and West Virginia.

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The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal officer for the State of South Dakota and provides legal advice to agencies, boards, and commissions of the State as well as representing the State in state and federal court.  The Office of Attorney General also handles prosecutions, felony criminal appeals, civil matters, consumer protection issues, and issues formal opinions interpreting statutes for agencies of the state.  Visit www.atg.sd.gov to learn more.

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