by Daniel Cox

A Congressman’s Calling
Former South Dakota Gov. William Janklow recounts his journey from aspiring tax lawyer to public advocate

Aspiring attorneys enter law school for many reasons. For some, law is a family business. For others, it is a gateway to a prestigious and lucrative career. A precious few begin legal careers for altruistic reasons. 

Then there’s William Janklow, South Dakota’s Governor-turned-U.S. Congressman, who entered law school “so I could do my own taxes.” 

Yet despite his initial motivations, Janklow wound up becoming South Dakota’s legal conscience—a leading activist for disadvantaged people locked out of the civil justice system. After graduating from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1966, Janklow fell into public interest law and fell into his calling. 

Within a matter of years, he became the head of South Dakota’s statewide legal services program. In legal aid work, Janklow found an outlet for his eloquence and his fierce compassion for those slighted or turned away by the system. 

Despite his father’s high-profile involvement in the Nuremberg trials, Janklow never aspired to be a trial lawyer. Yet fate delivered him there anyway; he wound up arguing and winning more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than any lawyer in South Dakota history. “There are two kinds of lawyering,” he says. “One is providing very skillful knowledge on the issues…and the other is the fire-in-your-belly fighting for your clients’ rights.” 

Janklow blends the two in lethal combination. To date, he’s only lost four cases. Janklow followed his victories in the courtroom with an equally successful career in public service. He was a nominee to the first Legal Services Corporation Board of Directors in 1974. That same year, he was elected South Dakota Attorney General, capturing an unprecedented 67 percent of the vote. He then went on to serve four terms as Governor (1979-1987 and 1995-2003). 

Throughout his 16 years in the governor’s mansion, he never forgot why he entered public service in the first place. “We all have a right to be heard in America,” he says. “Whether or not they listen to us is a different story, but we all have a right to tell our story.”

What originally inspired you to go to law school?

I went to law school because I wanted to be a tax accountant. I majored in accounting and business as an undergraduate. I applied for graduate school at New York University to get a master’s in tax, but I applied too late. They told me I could come the next year. So I needed a job for a year; I had a wife and two children and a lot of college debt. The Rosebud Sioux tribe [in South Dakota] funded a legal services program as part of the Community Action Agency. I applied for it and got the job, and I was going to stay there for one year. Six and a half years later, I left. 

I fell in love with what I did. I had never, ever wanted to be a trial lawyer—ever. But I loved trying cases. I loved representing people who had never had a lawyer before. I loved fighting the system, and back in those days, every direction you looked there was an issue that had never been adjudicated with respect to poverty law, low-income people, and Native Americans. It was just a treasure trove of cases. I loved every minute of it.

What effect did your years serving as a legal aid attorney have on your perception of the American civil justice system?

I, like a lot of people, had heard about criminal law and the disadvantaged. You hear about that all the time. But I didn’t have a clue, even having gone to law school, about the problems faced by people within the [civil] system—the inability of people to deal with different legal problems, be they consumer issues or domestic relations issues, because all of these things cost money. Most people can’t even figure out how you get the permits, licenses, et cetera, to go into business if you’re going to be a plumber or an electrician. And I don’t mean that in a diminutive way; I’m saying that it’s just endless. It made me sensitive to those kinds of things. 

My whole career I’ve been a tough conservative, but by the same token, I’ve always understood and dealt with those kinds of problems. During the years I’ve been in public life, you’ll see lots of my activities have dealt with folks who were really what I’d call financially disadvantaged. I had no clients that had money my first six years out of law school—none. I never had a client that could pay a fee. But they had real problems, and it was important that those problems were addressed.

What do you think happens when a person with a legitimate grievance is denied access to the justice system?

What separates our system from other systems? You don’t take the law into your own hands. You work within the system. You hear that speech all the time; we tell it to people all the time. If you don’t know how to work your way through the system, then people will resort to activities and conduct that’s not acceptable in society. Why did the colonists throw tea in Boston Harbor? It isn’t that King George was a bad guy; it’s just that the colonists couldn’t be heard. They were concerned about their ability to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of their grievances. They were concerned about King George’s army coming into their houses and searching their property. They were concerned about due process of law. That’s what happens when people can’t work within the system—they change the system. 

But I also think there is a responsibility as a poor person to try and learn, to try and get ahead, to try and move one’s way through the system. It’s a two-way street. We can’t ask people to play within the system if we don’t give them a uniform and the equipment to play. The cheapest thing our country has ever done was to provide legal services for the poor. I really mean that. 

Of all your legal achievements, what are you most proud of having accomplished as an attorney?
I’ve argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. I’ve tried a lot of cases in federal district court, state court, argued in state and federal appellate courts, courts of appeals. What am I most proud of? As a lawyer, I’m most proud of the fact that any client whose case I ever took I stayed with until it was done, period.

Inscribed above the entrance of the U.S. Supreme Court building are the words “Equal Justice Under Law.” What do these words mean to you?

What does the Supreme Court always say? Every word in the Constitution is to be given its literal meaning. “Equal justice under law” is simple. It means every single, living human being in this country is entitled to equal treatment under the law. And that, more than anything else, separates America from every other country in the world.