North Dakota’s post-2020 congressional redistricting was, by design, uneventful: the state has a single at-large U.S. House seat, so its congressional “map” is simply the state boundary. The 2020 Census apportionment, released April 26, 2021, confirmed North Dakota would keep one seat, eliminating the need for any line-drawing or enactment process and producing no litigation over congressional districts.

The state legislative process, by contrast, followed the traditional legislature-led model. A 16-member Redistricting Committee developed plans that the Legislative Assembly adopted in a November 2021 special session, and Governor Doug Burgum signed the enacted maps on November 11, 2021. Subsequent litigation reshaped the landscape: a three-judge federal panel dismissed one challenge to tribal-area House subdistricts, while a separate Section 2 Voting Rights Act case brought by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Spirit Lake Tribe led the federal district court to order new districts for use in 2024. On appeal, an Eighth Circuit panel vacated the district court’s Section 2 VRA ruling and ordered the case dismissed, holding private plaintiffs cannot enforce §2 via §1983, the tribes sought emergency relief, and the case is now at the U.S. Supreme Court on a petition for certiorari.

last updated: Oct. 2025