In wake of Voting Rights Act ruling, North Dakota to appeal decision that protected tribes’ rights

BISMARCK, N.D. — A day after a federal appeals court dealt a major blow to the Voting Rights Act, North Dakota’s top elections official announced Tuesday that he wants the court to review a judge’s recent ruling that protected the voting rights of two Native American tribes.

Voting rights groups had applauded Chief U.S. District Judge Peter Welte’s ruling Friday that tribal voting rights had been unlawfully diluted by a 2021 legislative redistricting map.

But on Monday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an unrelated lawsuit that private individuals and groups like the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act.

In announcing his intention to appeal Welte’s ruling, Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe specifically referred to Monday’s 2-1 ruling by the appeals court panel, based in St. Louis and has jurisdiction over seven states, including North Dakota. It is unclear whether the same three-judge panel would hear the North Dakota case.

Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley said Monday that the appeals court ruling “is an interesting and timely development” as state officials and legislative leaders consider their next steps regarding Friday’s ruling.

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe and three tribal members filed a lawsuit last year, seeking a joint district for the two tribes. They claimed the 2021 map “packs members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians into one House district at the same time, and rips members of the Spirit Lake Tribe out of every majority Native House district.”

Welte had ruled last week that the 2021 map “prevents Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice” — a violation of Section 2, a provision of the Voting Rights Act that “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color” or membership in certain language minority groups, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Welte had given Howe and the Republican-controlled Legislature until Dec. 22 to “adopt a plan to remedy the violation.” It was not immediately clear what impact an appeal would have on the judge’s timeline.

A special redistricting session would be the second this year, just after the Legislature met for three days in Bismarck last month to resolve a budget mess resulting from a major state funding bill that the state Supreme Court struck down declared.