Legislature grapples with court ruling

Almost immediately following the 2021 redistricting process, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Spirit Lake Nation sued the state of North Dakota, alleging the new districts diluted their voting rights.

Earlier this year a federal judge agreed with them, beginning a scramble to approve new maps before the deadline on Friday, Dec. 22.

U.S. District Chief Judge Peter Welte, appointed by President Trump in 2019, said the redrawn legislative map violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by putting the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Sub District 9A and the Spirit Lake Nation in District 15.

Welte then set a deadline of Dec. 22 for the N.D. Legislature to remedy the violation.

In response, North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe appealed the decision with the U.S. Eighth District Court of Appeals and requested the deadline not be enforced during the appeal process.

However, that request was rejected by the appellate court on Friday, Dec. 15. Consequently, if the legislature doesn’t meet the Dec. 22 deadline, Judge Welte has the option to choose from two maps put forth by the Turtle Mountain Reservation and Spirit Lake Nation.

Both of those proposed maps have the two tribes in the same legislative district.

In another effort to give the legislature more time, an emergency request to push the deadline to February was filed with the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals on Sunday, Dec. 17. That request was rejected late Wednesday.

As of press time Thursday morning, Dec. 21, the N.D. Legislature still had not approved a new redistricting map.

On Wednesday, Dec. 20, the redistricting committee charged with coming up with a solution held its second public meeting at 10 a.m. at the Capitol building in Bismarck.

The chairman of the committee, Sen. Ron Sorvaag, R-Fargo, referred to their duties on Wednesday as essentially court-ordered gerrymandering.

Nevertheless, the committee got to work reviewing maps and hearing testimony.

The members considered two different maps which were proposed as alternatives to those put forth by the tribes, one of which – Map 3 – is similar to the second of the two tribal maps.

It would put the two tribes into a single district – District 9 – and connect them via a small portion of rural Towner and Ramsey Counties.

This option was created and presented by District 14 Senator Jerry Klein, who said it fulfills the court order by connecting the tribes into one non-subdivided district, and has less impact to districts and counties than the second map put forth by the tribes.

Another option presented on Wednesday would create new subdistricts for District 15.

District 15A would include the southern portion of Devils Lake and the Spirit Lake Reservation – and therefore part of Eddy County. That southern portion of Devils Lake in District 15A would encompass 2,090 individuals from the city.

District 15B would encompass rural Ramsey County, a small portion of Towner County and the northern portion of Devils Lake.

That plan was presented by District 15 Sen. Judy Estensen, a Republican and resident of Warwick. She currently represents the Spirit Lake Reservation and the rest of District 15 in the N.D. Legislature.

Estensen would likely lose her senate seat should the two reservations be combined into one district, but would likely retain her seat should the map she created be adopted by the legislature.

During her presentation of the map and while she was being questioned, Estensen described the tribe’s insistence that they can’t win an election in District 15 as “hogwash,” and implied that her most recent Native American opponent simply didn’t work hard enough to get elected.

She also insisted that a non-Native American such as herself can represent the Native American community as well as, and even better than, “their preferred candidate.”

The meeting adjourned with no final decisions being made.

However, Map 3 – the option presented by Sen. Klein – appeared to have the most support among the redistricting committee members.

Plans were briefly discussed about holding another hearing, but nothing was officially scheduled.

As of press time, it was unclear if Judge Welte, who has said he can impose a map if the legislature doesn’t meet the deadline, will act before the legislators meet again.