North Dakota must pay attorney fees, expenses in tribal voter ID lawsuits
North Dakota is on the hook for nearly half a million dollars in plaintiffs' attorney fees and costs stemming from tribal lawsuits over state voter identification requirements.
An 8th U.S. Circuit of Appeals panel on Friday upheld a federal judge's May 2020 order that the state pay $452,983. Secretary of State Al Jaeger told the Tribune in a statement that "The decision is being reviewed and all options are being considered." He did not elaborate or say where the money would come from to pay the bill.
The state in February 2020 agreed to settle longstanding legal disputes with Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa members as well as the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes. The crux of the tribal claims was that North Dakota’s requirement that voters have identification with a provable street address creates a voting barrier for Native Americans who live on reservations where street addresses are hard to come by. The dispute at one point reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland in April 2020 approved the agreement, which included provisions that aimed to ensure Native American voters have valid IDs and can meet the address requirement.
Read more: https://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/tribal-news/north-dakota-must-pay-attorney-fees-expenses-in-tribal-voter-id-lawsuits/article_e0e4b115-98e2-5259-b604-81986731db7b.html
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