The U.S. Supreme Court has sent North Dakota’s tribal redistricting case back to a lower court for another review.
The case was brought by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, the Spirit Lake Nation, and individual voters. They challenged North Dakota’s 2021 legislative map, arguing it diluted Native voting strength in northeast North Dakota.
A federal judge previously agreed and ordered a new map. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals later overruled them, saying the tribes and voters could not bring the case themselves under that part of the Voting Rights Act.
The Supreme Court vacated that appeals court ruling Monday and sent the case back for another look after a separate voting-rights decision involving Louisiana. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court voided parts of the long-standing Voting Rights Act.
The decision to send the case back to the appeals court does not yet end the North Dakota case, which was previously dismissed due to a standing issue the Supreme Court now considers irrelevant. Tribal leaders praised the Supreme Court’s decision to hand the case back to the Eight Circuit, with their attorneys believing they will now be ruled to have standing to bring the case.
The map that Tribal leaders challenged will remain in place for this year’s congressional elections. North Dakota Attorney General Drew Rigley made the decision and has not commented on the ruling, but previously expressed support for the Eighth Circuit’s earlier dismissal.
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