S.D. Codified Laws § 22-21-1

Eavesdropping--Privacy--Misdemeanor

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case State v. Olson (1981)

Most recently applied in Gantvoort v. Ranschau (April 2022)

Source: SDC 1939, § 13.1425; SL 1976, ch 158, § 21-1; SL 1977, ch 189, § 49; SL 2017, ch 202, § 5; SL 2020, ch 84, § 1; SL 2021, ch 95, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

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.

No person may, except as authorized by law:

(1) Trespass on property with intent to subject anyone to eavesdropping or other surveillance in a private place; or

(2) Install in any private place, without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy there, any device for observing, photographing, recording, amplifying, or broadcasting sounds or events in such place, or uses any such unauthorized installation.

A person who violates this section is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Subdivision (2) does not apply to law enforcement officers, or to those acting under the direction of a law enforcement officer, while engaged in the performance of the officer's lawful duties.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.