Report: Public misled by South Dakota's online laws - SFGate

"If you want to know the law in South Dakota, don't look at the laws. 'South Dakota's website for codified laws is a legal ghetto,' said Waldo Jaquith, an advocate of open legal data. 'It's where the state puts information that is out of date and not accurate and expects citizens to rely on it.' The online version of the state constitution, for example, says that corporate farming is banned and members of Congress are term-limited. In reality, though, corporate farming is not banned and members of Congress are not term-limited, the Rapid City Journal (http://bit.ly/1E1iAz5 ) reported. Both items were invalidated years ago by court rulings, but neither has been legally removed from the text of the constitution. So with no warning about their ineffectual status, they linger there for all to read on the website on which the state publishes its legal code. They're not the only examples of dead laws lingering in South Dakota's code, and dead laws are not the only frustrating aspect of the state's online constitution and laws. Jaquith said they're symptoms of a broader, national problem of online state legal codes that are out of date, functionless, difficult to use and difficult to understand ..."