Court denies effort to restore Julie Frye-Mueller senate privileges

On Dec. 20, 2023, a trio of District 30 voters, each representing the counties of Fall River, Custer and Pennington, submitted a Petition to Proceed as a Class Action for a Writ of Habeas Corpus to the South Dakota Supreme Court. The lengthy filling was intended to allow District 30 Senator Julie Frye-Mueller “to fully function and perform her duties and privileges and function as their duly elected Senator in all proceedings of the South Dakota Legislature.”
The petitioners included Sandra Wahlert of Oral, Randy Chavez of Custer and Kenneth Delfino of Keystone, and were represented by attorneys Kenneth Jasper of Rapid City and Steven Haugaard of Sioux Falls.
Their petition was in response to the censuring of Sen. Frye-Mueller in January 2023 after a staff member of the Legislative Research Council (LRC) filed a complaint which outlined an alleged verbal exchange between Frye-Mueller, her husband Mike Mueller, and the staffer in which the senator is accused of making unsolicited remarks about the staffer’s choices regarding the vaccination and breastfeeding of her child.
After a brief suspension of a few days, Sen. Frye-Mueller was eventually reinstated by a 33-1 vote of the senate but was stripped of her committee assignments in the Senate Local Government and Senate Health and Human Services by Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, who serves as the President Pro Tempore of the S.D. State Senate.
However, in a ruling handed down by the State Supreme Court Friday, Jan. 5, the petition was  dismissed, citing that a requirement of the Writ of Habeas Corpus — most often used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine if their imprisonment was lawful — is that the individual be held in physical custody.
“The court concludes on its own motion that the request for habeas corpus relief is deficient on the face of the petition,” stated the ruling signed by chief justice Steven R. Jensen. Later in the document, it states, “Petitioners have failed to allege any facts showing they have been detained or placed in physical custody.”
According to the petitioners’ attorney Kenneth Jasper, the Writ of Habeas Corpus was utilized in the petition because they contend the President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck and members of the South Dakota State Senate were detaining or restraining the liberties of a duly-elected senator from performing her duties. Jasper said that is also one of the definitions of habeas corpus.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling last Friday, Jasper sent out a media release stating, the “citizens of South Dakota District No. 30 want their senator, Julie Frye-Mueller, to be able to fully represent them in Pierre this Legislative Session. Several of them have filed a class action lawsuit with the South Dakota Supreme Court hoping to accomplish that. They believe their constitutional right to full representation has been taken away by the unconstitutional act of the South Dakota Senate.”
“All citizens of Custer County, Fall River County, and a portion of Western Pennington County have been affected by the senate’s acts,” the media release goes on to state. “District No. 30 now has less representation than the 34 other legislative districts. At present she has been removed from committees, prohibited from caucuses, and is limited in using the Legislative Research Council as their senator. These restrictions inhibit her ability to fully represent District No. 30. This case is about the right of the citizens of District No. 30 to equal representation in the legislative process.”
Respondents named in the class action petition included District 5 Sen. Schoenbeck of Watertown and all members of the South Dakota State Senate.
According to a recent news article published by the Dakota Scout, Sen. Schoenbeck, who had originally stripped Sen. Frye-Mueller of her committee assignments last January, said there is no right of any senator to be on a committee and that those assigned are filled at his discretion, unless he is overruled by a majority of the Senate.
Wahlert, one of the three petitioners, who is also president of the Fall River County Republicans, said  Jan. 8, that she is unsure of what steps her group will take next to try and get Frye-Mueller’s committee assignments restored. She, however, said it’s important that all District 30 residents know that they are not being fully represented in the State Senate at this time, and that people need to let their voices be heard in Pierre.
She added that the impact this has goes far beyond Fall River, Custer and Pennington counties since much of the work done at the state legislature is done on the committee level. Missing a conservative voice like Frye-Mueller’s on those committees can have a considerable influence on statewide issues, Wahlert said.
This year’s South Dakota Legislative Session began Jan. 9.
In addition to Sen. Frye-Mueller, District 30 is also represented in the House of Representatives by Rep. Trish Ladner of Hot Springs and Rep. Dennis Krull of Hill City.