Is Kristi Noem an Attorney? Let's Look at Her Job History

When President Donald Trump announced his pick for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in November 2024, he described his candidate as someone who was "strong on border security." He chose governor and former congresswoman from South Dakota, Kristi Noem, who was the first governor to send National Guard soldiers to the border during former President Biden's term. She did this eight times.

Information about Noem began resurfacing on social media, including two stories from her May 2024 book No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward. We won't go into details, but they involve brutally killing a family pet as well as a farm animal. Since being confirmed as DHS Secretary, Noem has come under fire a few times, including during a May 2025 Senate hearing that showed she knows very little about the law. Is she an attorney?

According to Noem's bio, she is a "rancher, farmer, small business owner, and New York Times bestselling author." Not only is Noem missing her law degree, but she didn't finish college. She was raised on a farm in rural Hamlin County in northeastern South Dakota and always planned on running the ranch after graduating college. Noem dreamt of attending Missouri College until a beauty pageant win derailed her goals.

"This is kinda embarrassing," she told the Human Events blog in 2011. "I was the South Dakota Snow Queen." She beat out competitors from 50 schools all over the state but winning meant that Noem had to go to college in South Dakota. That's when she landed at Northern State University. While there, her dad died in a farming accident which forced the 22-year-old to drop out so she could help run the ranch. "We didn’t really have anyone else there who could stay and run the farm," she explained.

That was in 1993 and by then, Noem was already married to her husband Byron. The two moved to the farm and helped grow the ranch business, adding a hunting lodge which Noem still runs. Her older siblings eventually moved back and pitched in. Becoming a small business owner is what led Noem to politics as she quickly learned that legislation and business go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately for her, she skipped out on learning a few things about the law outside of the business world.

In early May 2025, White House adviser Stephen Miller told reporters that the Trump administration was "actively looking at" how the right of habeas corpus can be suspended during a time of invasion, per NBC News. This indicated that the administration is presumably trying to find ways to end due process for unauthorized immigrants in the United States.

Less than two weeks later, Noem was asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. to define habeas corpus during a Senate hearing. According to NBC News, the DHS secretary stumbled over an inaccurate definition. "Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to ...," she said before the senator stopped her. "That's incorrect," said Senator Hassan.

The Congresswoman from New Hampshire then went on to break down its meaning for the confused DHS secretary. "Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason," explained Senator Hassan, adding that this is a "foundational right."