In September 2025, the Spirit Lake Nation, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and several individual Native voters filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court, formally asking the Court to review our case in its upcoming term. Our petition for review will be distributed during the Court’s November 21, 2025, conference.
The Tribal Nations and Native American voters who filed this lawsuit ask the Supreme Court to uphold fair maps for the North Dakota state legislature and to reject efforts to undermine the Voting Rights Act. Allowing a discriminatory map to be re-instituted would rob Native voters of their ability to elect a candidate of their choice to the state legislature.
Plaintiff Collette Brown talks about what it was like to get a fair voting map — after years of fighting for Native representation in the state legislature — and what it is like to now have the State of North Dakota fighting to take that map away:
“It is unacceptable that we must go all the way to the United States Supreme Court just to defend our right to a fair map. Politicians should not be able to manipulate district lines to decide which voters get a voice. The court promised fairness, yet the State of North Dakota is choosing to waste time and taxpayer dollars fighting against the simple principle of equal representation.”
— Representative Collette Brown, District 9, North Dakota House of Representatives.
“The current North Dakota voting map gives my community a chance to elect who we want to represent us — just like other communities across the state. It is fairer than the map the state originally put into place, and nobody is saying it’s not. Instead, the Eighth Circuit is saying that Native voters and Tribal Nations don’t even have the right to fight for a fair map. The idea that we don’t have the right to advocate for ourselves and for fair voting is undemocratic and goes against the principles that our country was founded on.”
— Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Chairman Jamie Azure
“For years, Native voters in North Dakota have been fighting for adequate representation. It affects our day-to-day lives, our communities, and our well-being when we can’t elect a candidate to represent our interests. We deserve representation just like other communities around the state. It is shameful that, when we succeeded in court and got a fair map in place, the state turned its attack against the Voting Rights Act and a person’s right to vote free from discrimination. We need the Supreme Court to protect our fundamental right to vote and be heard.”
— Spirit Lake Nation Chairperson Lonna Jackson-Street.
Represented by Native American Rights Fund (NARF), Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the Law Office of Bryan L. Sells, LLC, and Robins Kaplan LLP, the plaintiffs have been fighting since 2022 for fair representation for Native American voters and against attacks on the Voting Rights Act.
Learn more about this case: https://narf.org/cases/north-dakota-redistricting-map/
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