A federal judge took a rhetorical blowtorch to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, saying in a ruling this week that the state has done “little, if anything” to stop COVID-19 from ravaging the state. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports that U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann ordered a state court to stop using the pandemic as an excuse to delay a defendant’s trial. Then he went after the state’s response to the crisis itself. “South Dakota has done little, if anything, to curtail the spread of the virus,” he wrote. “South Dakota cannot ‘take advantage’ of its own failures to follow scientific facts and safeguards in entering blanket denials of the rights of speedy trials.” Noem has opposed mask mandates and other lockdown measures, even as her state racked up one of the worst per capita infection rates in the country. “Her example significantly encourages south Dakotans to not wear masks,” the judge wrote. “South Dakota is now a very dangerous place in which to live due to the spread of COVID-19.”
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