Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in South Dakota

Re: Race

Interesting question, though this is a social question, more than a legal one. Still, it triggers a brief discussion of legal protection, so...

My take is that a statute defining who can claim which ethnicity is probably unconstitutional. Anything that traces ancestry beyond one's parents sounds like Nazi Germany.

Even with respect to one's parents, there is no SHOULD, only what you want to do. It's much harder for someone who looks black to claim to be white (good luck!...I suppose), but it's easy for someone who looks white to claim to be black. That's a social statement, nothing to do with legal requirements. See the problem?

So, decide which basket you want your child to be in and if the state gives you hassle about your choice, know that race classification is a HIGHLY suspect government policy. The state better have a good reason for compelling the choice of one over the other.