South Dakota Plate Covers: No Cover Ban in the Code, but Plates Must Stay Clearly Visible

The absence of a cover ban here is real, not an oversight of the search. The words cover and obscure do appear in South Dakota's vehicle title, and they appear in the section next door: SDCL 32-4-9 makes it a Class 6 felony to intentionally remove, deface, alter, destroy, cover, or obscure a vehicle identification number. The Legislature therefore knows how to prohibit covering an identifier and chose that language for the VIN and not for the plate. Nothing equivalent appears anywhere in chapter 32-5, and the Department of Revenue's own rules add nothing: article 64:28 on vehicle titling and article 64:29 on motor vehicle registration contain no plate cover, plate frame or plate obstruction rule, and the two Department of Public Safety articles that once carried equipment standards, ARSD 61:04 on motor vehicle safety inspection and 61:05 on motor vehicle equipment, are both marked transferred.

So the question in South Dakota is purely whether the plate can be read. SDCL 32-5-98 sets four separate requirements, and a cover or frame can fail any of them. The plate number must be conspicuously displayed. It must be horizontal and in an upright position. The plate must be securely fastened. And it must be kept clear and free of mud, ice, or snow so as to be clearly visible, at all times and as far as is reasonably possible. A smoked or tinted shield that dims the characters, a frame that laps over the state name or the month sticker, and a hinged or flip mount that leaves the plate off vertical all run into that text directly.

South Dakota is a two-plate state, which matters because a cover or a novelty plate on the front is a second offense rather than a cosmetic choice. The only routine escape is the special interest motor vehicle plate. Under SDCL 32-5-179 a resident who owns a vehicle that is collected, preserved, restored or maintained as a leisure pursuit and is not used for general or commercial transportation may apply through the county treasurer, and SDCL 32-5-180 then says that notwithstanding the requirements of SDCL 32-5-98 the vehicle is not required to display a number plate on the front. The rear plate must still be securely fastened in a horizontal and upright position. SDCL 32-5-181 charges twenty-five dollars a year on top of the noncommercial registration fee.

Motorcycles get their own allowance in the same section. A motorcycle is only required to display one number plate, and that plate may be mounted in any visible manner other than upside down. The upside-down clause was added by SL 2017, ch 129, and it is the only mounting orientation South Dakota expressly forbids.

One further requirement is easy to miss because it sits in the lighting chapter rather than the registration chapter. SDCL 32-17-11 requires either the rear lamps or a separate lamp to illuminate the rear registration plate with a white light and render it clearly legible from a distance of fifty feet to the rear, and requires any separate plate lamp to be switched by the same control as the headlamps. A cover dark enough to defeat that fifty foot reading is a separate petty offense even if the plate looks fine in daylight.

Finally, do not confuse a cover with a substitution. SDCL 32-5-103 makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to counterfeit a valid license plate or decal or to substitute any marker for one, and a further Class 1 misdemeanor to move a registered plate to a different vehicle.

A violation of SDCL 32-5-98 is a Class 2 misdemeanor, which SDCL 22-6-2(2) punishes by up to thirty days in a county jail, a fine of up to five hundred dollars, or both. The plate illumination failure under SDCL 32-17-11 is only a petty offense, which South Dakota handles as a civil action under SDCL 22-6-7 and chapter 23-1A with a twenty-five dollar judgment under SDCL 23-1A-22. Because South Dakota repealed its periodic safety inspection, all of this is roadside enforcement: SDCL 32-21-28 lets a Division of Highway Patrol officer require a driver to stop and submit to an inspection of the vehicle, its equipment, license plates and registration certificate on evidence of nonconformance, and SDCL 32-21-29 authorizes any peace officer to issue a warning ticket instead, designating the provision violated and requiring correction within ten days of issue.

Ignoring that warning ticket is itself a Class 2 misdemeanor under SDCL 32-21-30. Counties and municipalities cannot add a plate cover rule of their own, because SDCL 32-14-3 bars local authorities from enforcing any regulation contrary to chapters 32-14 to 32-19 and 32-22 to 32-34.