Court Ruling Could Alter North Dakota Legislature

(Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – An appeals court will not reconsider its decision finding that the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Spirit Lake Nation and three tribal citizens lack standing to bring a voting discrimination case against the state of North Dakota, a ruling that could impact the makeup of the state Legislature.

The Native American Rights Fund, one of the legal groups representing the plaintiffs in the case, in a statement called the decision “a loss for Native American voters in North Dakota.”

The plaintiffs could still file a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

In the lawsuit, filed in 2022, two North Dakota tribes and three Indigenous North Dakotans argued that a redistricting plan adopted by the state in 2021 diluted the power of Native voters, thereby violating the Voting Rights Act.

North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Peter Welte in 2023 sided with the plaintiffs and ordered the state to adopt a different map.