It is a Class 2 misdemeanor for any person under the age of twenty-one years to purchase, attempt to purchase, or possess or consume alcoholic beverages except pursuant to § 35-9-1.1 or when consumed in a religious ceremony and given to the person by an authorized person, or to misrepresent his or her age with the use of any document for the purpose of purchasing or attempting to purchase alcoholic beverages from any licensee licensed under this title.
S.D. Codified Laws § 35-9-2
Purchase, possession, or consumption of beverage by person under twenty-one years prohibited--Exception--Misrepresentation of age--Violation as misdemeanor
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Barger v. Cox (1985)
Most recently applied in State v. Bettelyoun, Ehret, Osborne (March 2022)
Source: SL 1949, ch 18, §§ 1, 2; SDC Supp 1960, §§ 5.0227-1, 5.9909; SL 1963, ch 16; SL 1968, ch 5; SL 1971, ch 211, § 111; SL 1977, ch 190, § 132; SL 1987, ch 261, § 12; SL 201…
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.