North Dakota pension board challenges legislative appointments to panel #North #Dakota #pension #board #challenges #legislative #appointments #panel

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The board that oversees North Dakota’s government retirement plans is asking the state Supreme Court to block the Legislature from appointing sitting lawmakers to the panel.

A major budget bill passed in the recently concluded legislative session included a change to increase the number of lawmakers who sit on the Public Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees from two to four, bringing total membership from nine trustees to 11.

The board argues it is unconstitutional for state lawmakers to sit on the panel, citing a separation of powers violation.

The North Dakota House chamber and Capitol tower stand in Bismarck, N.D., on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The trial in the federal lawsuit brought by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe over the state's 2021 legislative redistricting map ended Thursday, June 15, in Fargo, N.D. The tribes allege the map violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting Native Americans' voting strength on their reservation. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)

A federal judge is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether the new boundaries of North Dakota’s legislative districts dilute Native American voters’ strength on two reservations whose tribes are challenging the map approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

FILE - Moving company workers unload boxes for the Red River Women's Clinic, formerly of Fargo, N.D., that is setting up in a commercial building in Moorhead, Minn., Aug. 5, 2022. The clinic that was North Dakota's sole abortion provider is challenging the state's newest abortion laws as part of an ongoing lawsuit that calls the restrictions unconstitutional. Attorneys for the Red River Women's Clinic and several physicians filed their amended complaint on Monday, June 12, 2023, in state district court. (AP Photo/Dave Kolpack, File)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A former North Dakota abortion provider challenged one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws Monday, arguing the law “flagrantly violates” a court ruling supporting the right of patients in the state to obtain the procedure to preserve their life or health.

FILE - The North Dakota Capitol tower is seen, April 19, 2012, behind a large stone identifying sign in Bismarck, N.D. A bench trial began Monday, June 12, 2023, in Fargo, N.D., in the federal lawsuit brought by two Native American tribes in 2022 challenging North Dakota's redistricting map the GOP-led Legislature approved in 2021. The Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake tribes argue the map violates the Voting Rights Act, and are proposing a legislative district that encompasses their reservations. (AP Photo/Dale Wetzel, File)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Two tribes are in federal court this week, trying to prove to a judge that North Dakota’s legislative district map dilutes Native American voters’ strength on their reservations.

FILE - Traffic backs up at the border crossing from Manitoba, Canada, to the U.S. at Pembina, N.D., July 20, 2018. A man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to accusations that he conspired to smuggle people from Mexico across the U.S.-Canada border and through North Dakota. Rodolfo Arzola-Carrillo, a Mexican national living in Georgia, pleaded guilty in federal court in North Dakota on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, the Bismarck Tribune reported. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A Georgia man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to accusations that he conspired to smuggle people from Mexico across the U.S.

“It just comes down to a function of what is the function of each branch of our state government,” System Executive Director Scott Miller said in an interview.

State Solicitor General Philip Axt called the board’s separation-of-powers argument “a sweeping challenge with the potential to dramatically upend State government operations.”

The North Dakota Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments on Wednesday in the lawsuit.

Miller said the lawsuit is unrelated to the Republican-led Legislature’s closure of the state’s public employee defined-benefit pension plan, which will move new hires to a defined-contribution, 401(k)-style retirement plan.

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