Litigation

On June 24, 2025, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the ACLU of Montana, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a Motion to Intervene in a case brought initially by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, challenging a new Montana law that restricts Native American participation in the state’s electoral process.  The new law, Senate Bill 490 (SB 490), passed in the 2025 Montana Legislative session, restricts voter registration by eliminating eight critical hours of registration opportunity on Election Day. SB 490 harms Native Americans in rural Tribal communities across Montana’s seven Indian reservations by restricting access to the voter registration…

The Spirit Lake Tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and several individual voters filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota challenging North Dakota’s state legislative map, as unlawfully diluting the voting rights of Native Americans in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The Native American Rights Fund (NARF), Campaign Legal Center (CLC), and the Law Offices of Bryan Sells represent the plaintiffs in their suit. Robins Kaplan LLP represents the Spirit Lake Tribe. “In a process that is supposed to produce election boundaries that fairly and accurately reflect North…

Alaska Native voters and Alaska Tribes successfully sued the State of Alaska, forcing it to comply with the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act and the voting guarantees of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Because the State of Alaska has never fully complied with the federal court order, NARF continues to monitor the state’s language assistance program and the court continues to have jurisdiction over the case. In August 2023, the court extended the settlement agreement for this case through 2026. Read more about Toyukak v. Dahlstrom on the NARF Website.

In the final weeks of the legislative session, Montana legislators passed two laws that will hinder Native American participation in the state’s electoral process. A lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) on behalf of the Blackfeet Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and by the ACLU and ACLU-MT on behalf of Western Native Vote and Montana Native Vote challenges two discriminatory voting laws. On March 27, 2024, the Montana Supreme Court held that the two state laws violate the fundamental right to vote under the Montana Constitution.  Read more about…

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, and individual voters filed a lawsuit in Jan. 2023, against Thurston County and elected county officials for adopting county supervisor districts that intentionally dilute the Native vote and do not comply with federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) protections. If the case is successful, it will be the third time Thurston County’s Board of Supervisor redistricting plans have been found to violate the VRA by discriminating against Native American voters. “Native Americans now make up a majority of the voting-age population in Thurston County. Instead of following the law to provide…

The Tohono O’odham Nation, Gila River Indian Community, and future Native voters filed a lawsuit challenging an Arizona law that would make it difficult to impossible for many tribal citizens to vote. Under the new law, individuals must provide a government-issued photo ID that contains or is paired with another document that contains the person’s current physical address, or the individual must provide two documents that contain their current physical address. The requirements ignore the lack of standardized addressing on homes on tribal lands in Arizona. Read more about Tohono O'odham Nation v. Brnovich on the NARF Website.

The Spirit Lake Tribe and two individual voters filed a lawsuit against Benson County, North Dakota, for adopting a redistricting plan that violates the rights of Native voters. In response to a Native population increase of 17% that would have required creating at least two Native majority districts, Benson County abandoned its previous district system altogether. The North Dakota county adopted an at-large voting system that prevents the increased number of Native votes from having an impact in elections, while subject to a consent decree issued in 2000, that prevented the county from adopting an at-large voting system to avoid…

While over 40% of Lyman County, South Dakota, voters live on the Lower Brule Reservation, an at-large election system made it impossible for Lower Brule Sioux Tribe reservation voters to elect local representation for 30 years. Individual voters and the Tribe filed a lawsuit in May 2022 after the county adopted a 2020 redistricting cycle plan that would delay any opportunity for representation until 2026. Read more about the successfully settled Lower Brule Sioux Tribe et al v. Lyman County et al case on the NARF website. (Photo of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Reservation courtesy of the Lower Brule Sioux…

On July 18, 2022, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), represented by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in the United States Supreme Court case Merrill v. Milligan (21-1086), a case which examines whether the proposed Alabama redistricting plan violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The NCAI brief provides the Court with an account of the ongoing and critical need for Section 2 of the VRA to safeguard against Native American vote dilution caused by contemporary racial discrimination and voter suppression. This ongoing racial discrimination continues to impact Native Americans’ ability to elect…

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and individual voters requested the Native American Rights Fund assist them in joining a lawsuit against two Republican officials seeking to eliminate the majority Native-voter state legislative subdistrict that encompasses the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. The tribal government and Native voters seek to defend the subdistrict, which the state created during the 2020 redistricting process to comply with the Voting Rights Act. More about: Walen et al. v. Burgum et al.