North Dakota

A federal judge Wednesday banned the enforcement of a century-old statute that prevents North Dakota citizens from campaigning on Election Day, calling the law “archaic” and “unconstitutional.”

The North Dakota Supreme Court is considering a proposed amendment to its rules that would block public Internet access to certain criminal records, sparking concern over access to court records.

The court held a public meeting on Monday about the proposed rule, which would remove cases from the Internet in which a defendant was acquitted, the case was dismissed, or its paper record is no longer required by law to be kept on file. The rule would only affect electronic files and not paper records.

A North Dakota district judge wrongly refused to release the names of jurors after they convicted a man of murder last year, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

Finding Judge John Paulson's rationale -- that he'd promised not to identify the jurors -- "insufficient to overcome the presumption of public access," the high court unanimously ordered the judge to alert the jurors and then release their names.

A North Dakota judge wanted to move a settlement along between the feuding NCAA and the University of North Dakota in a lawsuit over the school's controversial use of its "Fighting Sioux" logo -- the NCAA had alleged the logo to be "racially insensitive" and ordered the university to halt its use of the image. So Judge Lawrence Jahnke ordered records in the case to be sealed, reasoning that if the "divisive" media reports based on the filings ceased, the parties would be free to settle in peace.

And they did.

In a friend-of-the-court brief to the North Dakota Supreme Court, the Reporters Committee this week urged the court to issue a directive requiring lower courts in the state to follow specific procedures set forth in the law before sealing records.

North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education reached a settlement Oct. 26 with the NCAA that gives the University of North Dakota three years to persuade Sioux tribes to support the school's Fighting Sioux nickname.

In September, the judge sealed future court filings in the case to facilitate settlement talks between the parties.

Sep. 24, 2007  ·   A judge last week sealed all future documents in a lawsuit challenging an NCAA ban on the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname, noting that he did so to encourage settlement talks between the parties.