North Dakota

Supreme Court ruling bolsters North Dakota cases, AG Wrigley says

Published

2 years ago

July 6, 2024

Press Room

Supreme Court ruling bolsters North Dakota cases, AG Wrigley says

Attorney General Drew
Wrigley (R-ND)

By Amy Dalrymple

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision curbing the regulatory power of the executive branch could give the state a boost in its roughly 30 pending lawsuits against the federal government.

The high court’s ruling, released June 28, reverses a 40-year policy that required federal courts to defer to executive branch agencies when interpreting vague laws.

“It’s a long time coming,” Wrigley said of the decision in Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo. “This was an unwise doctrine when it was first pronounced decades back.”

The practice — often called “Chevron deference” after the Supreme Court 1984 ruling that created it — applied to how federal agencies enacted regulatory marching orders from Congress.

When Congress passes a law directing an agency to regulate something, its instructions are seldom 100% clear. The court decided in the 1984 case that federal agencies could use their own expertise to fill in the blanks in areas where the law is ambiguous.

The idea was that the agencies would know best how to interpret the will of Congress, and that the doctrine would protect them from excessive legal challenges.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision revoked this power. Now, it’s up to federal judges to interpret gray areas in legislation.

The ruling is expected to lead to significant regulatory changes as the federal government implements the new standard.

Wrigley said he expects the ruling to be largely positive for North Dakota’s spate of lawsuits against the federal government — which includes cases challenging regulations passed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Education and more.

“This decision has taken away power from nameless, faceless bureaucrats,” he said.

The ruling could also have major impacts on the federal government’s relationships with Native tribes, said Tim Purdon, a former U.S. Attorney for North Dakota who represents tribal communities as a private practice lawyer.

“There are lots of regulations that the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior and places like that have historically interpreted,” he said.

Some critics of the Chevron deference are hopeful its ouster will lead to more consistency in the executive branch.

Under Chevron, the regulatory environment could swing from one extreme to the other when new presidents took office, said Paul Traynor, an assistant professor for the University of North Dakota Law School whose specialties include insurance and corporate law.

“It kind of put both the country and people in sort of a whipsaw,” he said.(His brother, Dan Traynor, is a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of North Dakota.)

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn the doctrine, with the court’s three liberal judges dissenting.

The court’s opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, states that reversing Chevron is consistent with the intent of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the federal courts the power to interpret laws.

“The Framers … anticipated that courts would often confront statutory ambiguities and expected that courts would resolve them by exercising independent legal judgment,” Roberts wrote.

The court’s liberal justices countered that federal agencies are better suited to make sense of the instructions Congress gives them.

“Congress knows that it does not — in fact cannot — write perfectly complete regulatory statutes,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent. “It knows that those statutes will inevitably contain ambiguities that some other actor will have to resolve, and gaps that some other actor will have to fill. And it would usually prefer that actor to be the responsible agency, not a court.”

The North Dakota courts also have a history of deferring to state agencies’ interpretation of the law, according to Chief Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness.

The question remains as to whether the Supreme Court’s decision will lead North Dakota to reexamine the level of regulatory power it gives those agencies.

“I think that our state regulators … are going to have to very seriously look at the grant of authority that they have been delegated by the Legislature,” Traynor said.

The decision to overturn Chevron comes just two years after another landmark Supreme Court ruling that curbed the executive branch’s regulatory power, commonly referred to as West Virginia v. EPA. In that decision, the Supreme Court struck down an EPA rule that regulated carbon dioxide emissions by power plants. North Dakota was also a plaintiff in the case.

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North Dakota

Griffins Add Former North Dakota Senior | Detroit Hockey Now

Published

2 hours ago

April 12, 2026

Press Room

Griffins Add Former North Dakota Senior | Detroit Hockey Now

The Grand Rapids Griffins are adding another new face to the room at the end of their regular season. Dylan James is joining the team on an amateur tryout for after signing a two year entry level contract with the Red Wings beginning with the 2026-27 season.

The now 22-year-old forward was named rookie of the year in the USHL after a standout season in his draft year, and was taken by the Red Wings 40th overall in the 2022 draft. James joins a handful of other Red Wings second round picks in Grand Rapids, including Trey Augustine (42, 2023) and Eddie Genborg (44, 2025) as they make their Calder Cup Playoff run.

After being drafted by the Red Wings, James spent the next four years developing at the University of North Dakota, helping the Fighting Hawks to become the NCHC regular season champions twice in his college career, as well as reaching this year’s Frozen Four. James and the Fighting Hawks were knocked out by the Wisconsin Badgers in the quarterfinal, however.

The senior forward was named as one of the team’s alternate captains this year, and collected 32 points across 40 games with 21 goals and 11 assists, bringing his UND career totals to 89 points with 52 goals and 37 assists.

Standing at 6’1″ and 192lbs, James is known for his puck security and willingness to make the extra step as a defender in addition to his offensive capabilities. The Griffins, now with several Red Wings prospects on the roster, will look to get further than last year’s first round exit.

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North Dakota

North Dakota State’s Head-Turning QB Fact Amid Draft Dominance

Published

14 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Press Room

North Dakota State’s Head-Turning QB Fact Amid Draft Dominance

Getty

Carson Wentz was an exception among the quarterbacks drafted by NDSU and other top quarterback-producing schools in the past decade.

Much is being made of North Dakota State soon tying Ohio State, along with Alabama, for the most quarterbacks drafted since 2016.

NDSU will have five after the upcoming NFL Draft with Cole Payton poised for late-round selection. Alabama will have a fifth with Ty Simpson going sometime early in the draft. Ohio State won’t have a quarterback going this year since Julian Sayin is playing another year in Columbus.

Among those three schools, only NDSU has produced a quarterback who played a major role with a Super Bowl-winning team and contended for MVP. That’s former Bison quarterback Carson Wentz, who went No. 2 in the 2016 draft. He helped the Philadelphia Eagles earn the No. 1 seed amid 13 starts as a serious MVP candidate in 2017 before an ACL tear. The Eagles eventually won the Super Bowl that season with backup Nick Foles.

Only former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has been with a Super Bowl winner but as a backup with the Seattle Seahawks in 2025. No other quarterback drafted from those three schools has played for a Super Bowl winner. The only playoff quarterbacks include former Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud and former Alabama quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa, Bryce Young, and Mac Jones.

Why NDSU is Producing NFL Quarterbacks Frequently

GettyCarson Wentz hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in 2018.

Every primary Bison starter from Wentz to Cam Miller has made it to the NFL, and Payton is next in line.

NDSU was an FCS program from 2004 to 2025 before the Bison moved up to the FBS. Smaller schools seldom produce one NFL quarterback. Past exceptions have included late Alcorn State star Steve McNair, former Northern Iowa star Kurt Warner, and former Eastern Illinois star Tony Romo.

The Bison were already a dominant Division II team when moving up to the FCS, but the Herd never produced an NFL quarterback before that move. Things took off with former Bison quarterback Brock Jensen, who led the team to three-consecutive FCS national championships between 2011 and 2013.

Jensen participated in the Miami Dolphins‘ training camp in 2014, but he didn’t make the team and opted for a career in the CFL. Wentz waited behind him for three seasons before he became the starter and ascended to a highly-touted draft prospect.

Behind the scenes, former NFL quarterback and Bison quarterbacks coach Randy Hedberg helped develop Wentz and the NFL-bound signal callers who came after him. NDSU also runs a pro-style offense, which has quarterbacks more ready for the next level versus other college offensive systems.

There likely could be more to come with NDSU playing the FBS. Current Bison quarterback Nathan Hayes will get his lone shot as the starter this fall in hopes to continue the draft lineage.

Top QB-Producing Schools Haven’t Produced Top QBs

GettyCarson Wentz became a career backup after failed attempts as a starter.

While the three aforementioned schools can claim the most quarterbacks drafted, they can’t claim the most successful ones.

Only Stroud and former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young are starters among quarterbacks from those schools. Former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields didn’t pan out as a starter in his first three stops. Jones didn’t last in New England, Tagovailoa didn’t work out in Miami, and Wentz became a backup after three failed stints.

Former Bison quarterback Trey Lance also fell short with the San Francisco 49ers and has been a backup since. Fellow former Bison, Miller and Easton Stick, have only been backups, and Payton is projected to be a backup.

Former Ohio State quarterback Will Howard is a backup, Cardale Jones was a backup, and the late Dwayne Haskins Jr. was briefly a starter for the Washington Commanders before his untimely death.

Matthew Davis covers the NFL, WNBA and college sports for Heavy.com. As a contributing writer to the StarTribune, he has also covered Minnesota prep sports since 2016. More about Matthew Davis

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Man arrested in North Dakota six months after Durham County murder

Published

1 day ago

April 11, 2026

Press Room

Man arrested in North Dakota six months after Durham County murder

A man was arrested in North Dakota in connection with a November murder in Durham County.

Deputies said 28-year-old Alberto Flores died after he was shot on Sunday morning outside of a business on Guess Road.

Carlos Anuel Medina Robles was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Luis Alberto Flores. The Durham County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigative Division and the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Marshals Service were able to track Robles down.

On Thursday, the U.S. Marshals Service found Robles in Ward, North Dakota. He was taken into custody.

Extradition proceedings are pending.

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