The State Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill to protect South Dakotans Freedom of Speech. The legislation protects citizens against libel judgments from some foreign countries. State Senator Dan Lederman says this is a way South Dakota can ensure writers of their rights when dealing with foreign publications.
"If you get a judgment against you for writing something and it’s in a foreign court and that judgment comes here. The judge before allowing that foreign judgment would have to make the determination that the country that issued it would have given you the same level of free speech," says Lederman.
Opponents of the bill say dealing with foreign policy can always be a struggle. Opponents don’t necessarily agree with the term judgment and how country to country defines that term differently. The bill passed the committee four votes to two. It goes next to the State Senate.