Justice & Law Quote by Bill Janklow

A handshake dressed up as policy, this is the language of the late-20th-century economic development hustle: states competing like sales reps, rewriting statutes to land a corporate “guarantee” that can be counted, photographed, and campaigned on. Janklow’s repetition of “invite” isn’t accidental. It reframes deregulation as hospitality, as if changing the law were just setting an extra place at the table. The subtext is blunt: corporations don’t merely choose locations; they negotiate sovereign rules. The “invitation” is really permission to operate on friendlier terms than the public might otherwise accept.

The quote also performs a kind of moral laundering. Instead of saying “we weakened consumer protections” or “we tailored banking rules,” Janklow casts the state as an eager host responding to a guest’s reasonable request. That rhetorical move matters because it shifts agency and accountability: the company “wanted” an invitation, the state simply complied, and the payoff is framed as inevitable and measurable - 400 jobs - the magic number that turns controversy into pragmatism.

Context does the rest. South Dakota’s 1980s decision to loosen usury limits helped lure Citibank’s credit card operations, a landmark moment in the national race to the bottom on financial regulation. Janklow isn’t hiding the transactional nature; he’s normalizing it. The quote’s real intent is political insulation: if the law change feels like welcoming investment rather than reshaping power, then the bargain sounds less like capitulation and more like governing.