US Appeals Court Rules Against North Dakota Tribes in Voting Rights Act Lawsuit

The court struck down a key way of enforcing the federal Voting Rights Act in seven Midwest states.

Residents vote at a polling place inside the Heritage Oaks apartment homes in Madison, Wis., on April 1, 2025. Scott Olson/Getty Images

A federal appeals court on May 14 ruled that two tribal groups may not bring a voting discrimination lawsuit against the state of North Dakota under a civil rights law—a decision that is set to have implications in seven Midwestern states.

In a 2–1 decision, the St. Louis-based Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that private plaintiffs cannot use Section 1983, a law enacted in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, as a means to enforce protections enshrined in the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

The decision was in response to a lawsuit filed in 2022 by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe, and three voters against the North Dakota Secretary of State challenging a redistricting plan approved by the state Legislature in 2021.

The ruling affects voters in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, which fall within the Eighth Circuit, according to the Campaign Legal Center, an advocacy group that represented the tribes in the legal challenge.

“This decision severely undermines the Voting Rights Act and is contrary to both the intent of Congress in enacting the law and to decades of Supreme Court precedent affirming voters’ power to enforce the law in court,” Mark Gaber, senior director for redistricting at the center, said in a statement.

“If left intact, this radical decision will hobble the most important anti-discrimination voting law by leaving its enforcement to government attorneys whose ranks are currently being depleted. Campaign Legal Center will continue to fight to uphold the VRA and ensure fair maps.”

Gaber did not state whether the center would pursue further appeals, but the plaintiffs could ask the full Eighth Circuit to rehear the case, or take it to the Supreme Court.

The vast majority of Voting Rights Act cases are filed by private parties.

The latest ruling comes after the same appellate court restricted the ability of voters to file lawsuits challenging voting maps when it ruled in 2023 that only the Department of Justice—and not private plaintiffs—can pursue cases enforcing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

That provision prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race or membership in a language minority group.

Federal Judge Sides With Tribes in Redistricting Lawsuit

Civil rights advocates in 2024 opted against appealing the 2023 ruling to the Supreme Court, citing the availability of an alternative mechanism to enforce the voting guarantees of Section 2 of the VRA.

That avenue was Section 1983, an 1871 civil rights law that grants people the power to file a lawsuit in federal court against state and local government officials who violate their constitutional or other federally protected rights.

A federal judge in North Dakota relied on the same federal civil rights law in 2023 when he sided with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe, and voters in holding that the state’s 2021 redistricting plan unlawfully diluted the Native American tribes’ voting power.

However, Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender, writing for the majority in the May 14 decision, said Congress did not speak with a “clear voice” that “manifests an unambiguous intent to confer individual rights” to enforce Section 2 of the VRA through Section 1983.

Gruender, in finding that the plaintiffs could not bring a cause of action, concluded that the district court erred in its 2021 decision.

He vacated the district court’s judgment and dismissed the tribes’ lawsuit.

In a lone dissenting opinion, Chief Circuit Judge Steven Colloton pointed to the lengthy history of more than 400 lawsuits that have resulted in judicial decisions brought under the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 since 1982.

He noted that Section 1983 provides that individuals may sue if they are subjected to “the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws.”

“The reference to ‘and laws’ encompasses any law of the United States,” Colloton wrote, referring to the VRA.

The Epoch Times contacted the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.