U.S. Supreme Court upholds a North Dakota state House district on an American Indian reservation

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Months after it won a lawsuit over legislative boundaries, North Dakota is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the victory. The state’s filing made Monday (May 6, 2024) has baffled others involved in North Dakota’s redistricting fights and prompted some legal experts to call the state’s action a potential assault on the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit involved House subdistricts North Dakota’s Legislature created in 2021 for two tribal nations, which the Republican plaintiffs alleged were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. Last fall, a three-judge panel granted requests by North Dakota and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation to throw out the lawsuit. The plaintiffs appealed.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Months after it won a lawsuit over legislative boundaries, North Dakota is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its victory, baffling others involved in the state’s redistricting fights and prompting some legal experts to call the state’s action a potential assault on the Voting Rights Act.

At issue is a ruling by a federal panel over a lawsuit filed by Republicans challenging the constitutionality of a redistricting map that created House subdistricts encompassing two American Indian reservations. Proponents of the subdistricts said they gave tribal nations better chances to elect their own members. Last fall, a federal three-judge panel tossed out the lawsuit at the request of the state and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The judges wrote that “assuming without deciding” that race was the main factor for the subdistricts, “the State had good reasons and strong evidence to believe the subdistricts were required by the VRA.”

The plaintiffs appealed.

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the three-judge panel decided the matter correctly under existing case law — but for the wrong reason. The state argues in a filing made Monday that it “cannot defend this Court’s ‘assumption’ that attempted compliance with the VRA (or any statute) would justify racial discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“We’re not seeking to reverse” the panel’s decision, Wrigley said. “We’re seeking to have it upheld but for the reason that race was not the predominant factor, and we think that we should prevail.”

But critics bashed the move as a questionable legal maneuver as well as an attempt to assault the Voting Rights Act.

“Imagine if you hired a lawyer, and that lawyer won the case for you, and then the other side appealed, and on appeal your lawyer argued that the judgment in your favor should be vacated and the matter should be sent back for a trial so that your lawyer could make some different arguments. Imagine that. I think in that scenario, you’d probably want your money back from your lawyer,” said Tim Purdon, who represents the Spirit Lake Tribe and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in their separate, successful lawsuit for a joint legislative district.

David Schultz, a Hamline University professor and a visiting professor of law at the University of Minnesota, said he thinks the action is part of a broader assault on the Voting Rights Act “to say that racial considerations cannot be used for any circumstances” when district lines are drawn.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen Republican-led states — most of which have engaged in legal fights over election maps — want the decision reversed. Last month, Alabama’s attorney general and the other states filed their brief with the court, saying they “have an interest in being able to accurately predict whether their redistricting laws will comply with federal law.”

Schultz also said he thinks the states see an opportunity now that the U.S. Supreme Court has a conservative majority.

Kareem Crayton, senior director of voting rights and representation at the Brennan Center for Justice, said, “This is sort of, to my mind, a question as to whether or not states are really learning the lessons that the Voting Rights Act was intended to help them embrace, which is you’ve got to treat communities of color as everyone else. They’re entitled to an opportunity to elect candidates.”

Key in the North Dakota case is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which forbids discriminatory voting practices based on race or color. Crayton said “these continued assaults on it raise questions as to whether or not these states actually want any fair consideration of election systems for people of color who are citizens of their states.”

In a statement, MHA Nation Tribal Chairman Mark Fox called it “extremely disappointing” to see Wrigley’s office now arguing “for this winning judgment to be vacated and this matter sent back down for a trial. We opposed this unconscionable change of position when the Attorney General raised it with us, and we oppose it now.”

Plaintiff attorney Bob Harms welcomed the state’s filing.

“I know the attorney general’s getting some criticism from people who feel like they won at the district level, but I do think that we have to step above that, about not just winning and losing but looking at constitutional principles and how they’re applied,” he said.

Wrigley said the Supreme Court will decide whether to have oral arguments and further briefing.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a new legislative district for two Native American tribes who successfully challenged North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting map as violating the Voting Rights Act in diluting Native American voters’ strength. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte’s decision Monday comes after a flurry of court filings since his Nov. 17, 2023, ruling after a June trial in the tribes’ lawsuit. Welte had set a Dec. 22, 2023, deadline for the Legislature to enact a new map, but the deadline came and went. The Legislature asked for more time, which Welte and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday (Jan. 8, 2024) ordered a new joint North Dakota legislative district for two Native American tribes that successfully argued a map created through redistricting in 2021 violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting their voting strength.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte’s decision to adopt and implement a new map comes after a flurry of court filings in the lawsuit since his Nov. 17, 2023, ruling that the state’s 2021 redistricting map “prevents Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.”

The judge had given North Dakota Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe and the GOP-controlled Legislature until Dec. 22 “to adopt a plan to remedy the violation.” The deadline passed with no new map as Howe and lawmakers sought a delay of the judge’s ruling and more time to respond.

Welte said the new map “requires changes to only three districts and is the least intrusive option that complies with the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.”

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe brought the lawsuit in early 2022. They alleged the 2021 redistricting map “simultaneously packs Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians members into one house district, and cracks Spirit Lake Tribe members out of any majority Native house district.”

In an emailed statement, plaintiffs’ attorney Tim Purdon said the tribes welcome the ruling for the 2024 elections.

“The map that will be used in 2024 is the same Voting Right Act-compliant map the Tribes originally recommended to the Redistricting Committee and the full Legislature during the 2021 redistricting process,” he said. “The time has come for the Legislature and the Secretary of State to stop spending taxpayer dollars litigating against fair maps in North Dakota.”

Days after Welte’s November ruling, Howe announced his plans to appeal, citing a new 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP can’t sue under a critical section of the landmark civil rights law.

Welte and the 8th Circuit denied Howe’s requests to delay the November ruling pending appeal. Late last month, the 8th Circuit denied the Legislature’s request to extend the Dec. 22 deadline to Feb. 9.,

Soon afterward, the Legislature asked Welte for the same extension, saying it “has made substantial headway toward the development of a remedial redistricting plan.” At the same time, the tribes asked the judge to deny the extension and to impose one of their two maps presented in federal court, by Dec. 31. On Monday, Welte denied the Legislature’s request for more time and granted the tribes’ request for a new map.

Republican House Majority Leader Mike Lefor said he had not seen the ruling when reached by The Associated Press, and declined to immediately comment. Howe did not immediately respond to a phone message or a text message.

The Legislature last month restarted its redistricting panel to begin to address Welte’s ruling and to review options of maps, including the tribes’ plans. The committee is scheduled to meet again on Tuesday.

In 2021, the two tribes unsuccessfully proposed a single legislative district encompassing the two reservations, which are roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) apart. Their lawsuit culminated in a trial in June in Fargo; Welte ruled months afterward.

North Dakota has 47 legislative districts, each with one senator and two representatives. Republicans control the House of Representatives 82-12 and the Senate 43-4. At least two lawmakers, both House Democrats, are members of tribes.

The Legislature created four subdistricts in the state House, including one each for the Fort Berthold and Turtle Mountain Indian reservations.

Lawmakers who were involved in the 2021 redistricting process have previously cited 2020 census numbers meeting population requirements of the Voting Rights Act for creating those subdistricts. Republican House Majority Leader Mike Lefor maintains the process was done correctly.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that North Dakota’s Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act in how lawmakers reapportioned legislative districts comprising two tribal nations.

U.S. District Chief Judge Peter Welte issued his ruling on Friday, months after a trial held in June in Fargo.

He ruled that the 2021 redistricting plan for two districts, one with two House subdistricts, “prevents Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in violation” of a major provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Welte gave the Republican-controlled Legislature until Dec. 22 “to adopt a plan to remedy the violation.”

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe alleged the 2021 redistricting map violates the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights law from 1965. Their complaint argued that the reapportionment “packs” Turtle Mountain tribal members into one House district and leaves Spirit Lake out of a majority-Native district.