Arguments in redistricting appeal still months away

The North Dakota Secretary of State’s Office is moving forward in the 2024 election with a legislative district map that a federal judge ordered it to use. 

There are still appeals pending in the Voting Rights Act case and Senate Majority Leader David Hogue maintains that a ruling in that case could still undo the redistricting that U.S. District  Judge Peter Welte ordered in January. 

“Lower court orders are reversed and vacated all the time,” Hogue, R-Minot, said on Feb. 13.

Welte on Jan. 8 issued his ruling putting both the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake reservation in the same legislative district. In an emailed statement the next day, the Secretary of State’s Office told the North Dakota Monitor: “Any action taken by the appeals court would not impact the maps used for the 2024 election cycle.”

Tribal voting rights victory shuffles legislative seats

Tim Purdon, attorney for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation, the two tribes that successfully sued the state over the district lines drawn in 2021, said the timeline makes that highly unlikely. 

“It looks like the absolute earliest these cases might be ripe for oral argument would be May or June and it normally takes the 8th Circuit a few months after oral argument to issue an opinion,” Purdon said. 

Purdon said the 8th Circuit is not scheduled to hear any oral arguments in July or August. 

The map that Welte ordered Secretary of State Michael Howe to use primarily affects Districts 9 and 15, which will have elections in 2024 – when normally only even-numbered districts would have elections. It also affects a portion of District 14. 

Candidate filings are due by 4 p.m. on April 8.

Hogue said he understands that Howe must move forward with the court-ordered map but said he still thinks the appeals court could reverse the order yet this election cycle. 

Purdon disagrees. 

“Given the Secretary of State’s formal legal filings stating that he cannot implement a new map for the 2024 election cycle after Dec. 31, 2023, anyone in the Legislature stating that the 2024 elections could possibly take place under any map other than the one ordered by Judge Welte should probably walk down the hall and talk to Michael Howe,” Purdon said.