North Dakota
Court case in North Dakota calls federal environmental review regime into question
BISMARCK — A lawsuit before a North Dakota federal district court could upend nearly five decades of environmental regulations affecting infrastructure projects.
The Council on Environmental Quality was created through an executive order by President Richard Nixon in 1969. It implements the National Environmental Policy Act, which directs federal agencies to assess how projects under their jurisdiction will impact environmental factors like air and water quality.
A coalition of 21 Republican-led states, including North Dakota, seeks to overturn a new regulation adopted by the council that took effect in July. The states argue that the rule introduces unreasonable requirements that will slow or even sink important infrastructure including new highways, airports, bridges and water systems, and unlawfully over-emphasizes climate change and environmental justice in the environmental review process.
In a lawsuit filed in May, the states asked the court to strike down the rule, direct the council to adopt regulations consistent with federal law, and reinstate a weaker version the agency enacted during President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020.
A group of 13 other states, plus the District of Columbia, New York City and a handful of advocacy groups, have joined the case on the side of the Council on Environmental Quality. The defendants argue the agency’s work is vital to protect the environment and public health, and that the 2024 rule should be left in place.
It’s possible that neither side will get what it wants. In a hearing earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor said the Council on Environmental Quality’s entire regulatory regime may be unlawful.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found in a
November order
that the agency does not have rulemaking authority because Congress never explicitly granted it the power to implement the National Environmental Policy Act. The appellate court did not strike down any of the council’s regulations, leaving it up to other courts to decide whether the rules should stand.
Traynor questioned how he could leave the regulations intact given the D.C. court’s findings. He said if he were to apply the court’s reasoning to the North Dakota case, he may conclude that all National Environmental Policy Act regulations passed by the council are void. The council issued its first rule implementing the act in 1978.
“If they have no authority, they have no authority,” Traynor said of the council. “It is a paper tiger.”
An attorney representing the Council on Environmental Quality, Gregory Cumming, rebuffed during the hearing the notion that the agency is operating without approval from Congress. The council keeps Congress apprised of its work with annual reports, he noted. If the assembly did not want the agency to pass rules, it could have passed legislation clarifying that stance, Cumming said.
Jan Hasselman — an attorney representing several advocacy groups that joined the case as defendants — said there’s a reason the council’s rulemaking authority has gone unquestioned for almost five decades.
“Nobody benefits when there’s no rules,” he told the judge. “It’s just sort of a mutually assured destruction.”
Traynor voiced skepticism that such a decision would create disarray. Even if the council’s rules disappear, other local and federal regulations would still be intact, he reasoned.
“It’s not like it becomes the Wild West,” he said.
Traynor asked the plaintiffs and defense to prepare legal briefs explaining how they would be impacted if he adopts the D.C. court’s reasoning.
The discussion came as part of a hearing on motions for summary judgment by the plaintiffs and defense. Both sides asked Traynor to decide the case in their favor without going to trial.
James Auslander, an attorney representing the plaintiff states, said the council is unlawfully and arbitrarily infringing on state sovereignty and the new rule will cause them significant economic harm.
“These are critical projects for plaintiff states and our citizens,” he said.
Cumming argued the plaintiff states have not demonstrated that the new rule has actually harmed them, and that many of the components of the rule challenged as cumbersome are guidelines, not requirements.
Traynor took the motions under advisement and has yet to issue a ruling.
The 21 plaintiffs states are Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, South Carolina, Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and Alaska.
The 13 states that joined the defense as intervenors are California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin.
This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com
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North Dakota
North Dakota Supreme Court reverses dismissal of contractors’ lawsuit against city of West Fargo
WEST FARGO — A lawsuit against the city of West Fargo will continue after the North Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday, June 25, reversed a 2025 dismissal.
In December, the Associated General Contractors of North Dakota and the American Concrete Pavement Association–North Dakota Chapter, Inc. appealed the dismissal judgment filed in favor of the city of West Fargo.
The North Dakota Supreme Court determined in its Thursday, June 25, ruling that the district court made an error by
dismissing these claims as “moot,”
with the reasoning that the construction project is completed and can’t be undone, and the court additionally erred by denying the plaintiffs the opportunity to amend their complaint “on grounds the association lacks standing to challenge a city ordinance.”
The dismissal was reversed, so the case will continue. The attorney for the plaintiffs/appellants, Nicholas Surma, said his team is very pleased with the outcome.
“(We) look forward to a decision on the merits whether the city can continue to substitute itself for private contractors or whether projects must be competitively bid to achieve the law’s intended purpose — allowing the free market to provide the best quality at the best price for West Fargo’s taxpaying citizens,” Surma said in a written statement.
David Samson / The Forum file photo
Rachel Richter Lordemann, director of communications for the city of West Fargo, said the city doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
The plaintiffs, collectively referred to as the “association,” originally filed a claim against West Fargo in May 2025, arguing the city violated competitive bidding requirements for a public improvement project by delegating some tasks to city staff rather than putting them up for bid.
North Dakota Century Code at the time stated the threshold for bidding the construction of a public improvement project was $200,000, according to Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling. The project in this case was expected to exceed that cost.
The plaintiffs asked the court to enter a judgment saying the city can’t self-perform any public improvement that exceeds $200,000, and violated state law by doing so in the Improvement District No. 2290 mill and overlay project. They also asked the court to prohibit West Fargo from self-performing work on that project and future projects required to be publicly bid on under state law.
West Fargo approved a contract for the project in June 2025, and the project was completed in September. After the project was finished, the city adopted an ordinance allowing the city to self-perform routine street maintenance with available funds, regardless of the estimated value, if the city feels it’s in its best interest to internally handle the job.
After the ordinance passed, the plaintiffs filed a motion to amend their complaint to include, among other things, a request for a declaration that the ordinance is invalid. The district court allowed the case to be put on hold while the plaintiffs gathered information, but denied their challenge of the ordinance.
“The court reasoned the association lacked standing to challenge the ordinance because the association had not alleged ‘an actual or threatened injury stemming from action under the ordinance’ or that ‘the City has exercised authority under the ordinance,’” the Supreme Court ruling said.
After oral arguments, the claims were dismissed without prejudice or costs awarded to either party.
Dismissals without prejudice can rarely be appealed, since plaintiffs can simply refile their case, however, the Supreme Court found an appeal was appropriate because the association has no ability to seek the relief it was when originally filing the case. The project can’t be undone.
The Supreme Court determined the public interest exception to mootness applies in this case, because “competitive bidding laws are designed to protect the public, and a decision will guide public officials administering political subdivisions across the state.”
The Supreme Court also disagreed with the district court’s ruling that the association had no ability to challenge the ordinance. It said the association has alleged facts that demonstrate the ordinance presents a threat to the interests of its members.
GRAND FORKS — A North Dakota composer’s dream is turning into a statewide invitation.
Williston-based musician Emily Black-Driscoll was chosen as the North Dakota Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2026. She’s preparing an original composition that will premiere in August.
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North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
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