The obstacle is that the political will to enact a legislative remedy has not existed in the United States Congress, and the political culture of South Dakota has consistently mobilized against any such attempt.

The Deepest Consequence — When The Growing Fund Becomes A Reproach

Around the turn of the twenty-first century, the judgment fund crossed the billion-dollar threshold — or began to be widely reported as having crossed it, given that the precise balance has never been publicly disclosed.

That threshold, symbolic as it is, changed something in how the story was told.

The numbers had become large enough to attract a different kind of attention.

Media coverage increased.