Definition of must and shall
Applied in 17 court decisions — leading case State v. Nelson (1998)
Most recently applied in State v. Beckwith (October 2015)
Source: SL 1997, ch 21, § 1; SL 2025, ch 22, § 1.
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
As used in the South Dakota Codified Laws to direct any action:
(1) The term "must" manifests a mandatory directive and does not confer any discretion in carrying out the action so directed; and
(2) The term "shall" manifests a mandatory directive and does not confer any discretion in carrying out the action so directed.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.