BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) β 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 held in June in Fargo.
He ruled that the 2021 redistricting plan for two districts, one with two House subdistricts, βprevents Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in violationβ of a major provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Welte gave the Republican-controlled Legislature until Dec. 22 βto adopt a plan to remedy the violation."
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights law from 1965. argued that the reapportionment βpacksβ Turtle Mountain tribal members into one House district and leaves Spirit Lake out of a majority-Native district.
Jack Dura, The Associated Press
