Showing posts with label Nakota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nakota. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Al Carlson on the law suit...

North Dakota Fighting Sioux men's ice hockeyImage via Wikipedia
This article by ESPN is worth a read if you haven't seen it. As mentioned earlier, no one has a clue on who is paying for this law suit, it's hardly unlikely the students mention are paying for this lawsuit. It would be nice to have some transparency and know who is footing the bill on this lawsuit. I am sure that information will come out in the near future.
ESPN.COM --- Some state leaders and UND President Robert Kelley are scheduled to meet with NCAA executives Friday in Indianapolis. Republican House Majority Leader Al Carlson, of Fargo, questioned the timing of the lawsuit and said it represents a handful of people with out-of-state interests.

"You've got a New York attorney. It was nice of them to keep it local," Carlson said. "We understand why it was done. It's a small group. My job is to represent the majority of North Dakotans.

"I think there has been a lot of discussion already and tomorrow we are going to make the case why we think the Fighting Sioux nickname should be retained," he said of Friday's meeting.

Fredericks said the timing of the lawsuit is related to the fact that the settlement agreement dictated that the nickname be officially retired Monday, and not because of the meeting with NCAA officials.

"The meeting that is happening on Friday is because of the Monday deadline," she said.

The truth shall set you free…

North Dakota Fighting Sioux men's ice hockeyImage via Wikipedia
This little nugget was found on Dustin Monke's blog, the Sports Editor of The Dickinson Press, I asked the question earlier today; “who is paying for this lawsuit?” There is a bigger entity out there than eight former students driving this lawsuit. That is the question people should be asking is, who is driving this lawsuit, and why now?

I highly doubt that these eight students in question have the money to retain a high priced lawyer of Sanford Dumain's stature, and now we find out that they also have a P.R. firm as well, someone else is footing the bill.

Six UND Indian students file federal lawsuit over Fighting Sioux nickname

North Dakota Fighting Sioux men's ice hockeyImage via WikipediaIn reading the newspaper articles I have gleaned that six students from the University of North Dakota of Native American decent that aren't Sioux (Nakota, Lakota, Dakota), have filed a law suit in Federal Court against Gov. Jack Dalrymple, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, the state of North Dakota, the North Dakota state Board of Higher Education and the University of North Dakota.

The Students' attorney in question is Sanford Dumain of the New York law firm Milberg LLP. Like Rob Port the first question that I asked myself is; who is paying for this lawsuit? That's the bigger question that people should be asking. I highly doubt that these six students have the money to retain a lawyer of Sanford Dumain's stature, someone is footing the bill.

According the the Bismarck Tribune the Students are claiming that the new law to retain the Fighting Sioux nickname violates their 14th Amendment. Which will probably be hard to prove and it will be interesting to see if the group even has standing to sue. What are they going to claim that they are being deprived of life, liberty and or property?
The complaint alleges the legislation violates the state Constitution, because the Board of Higher Education is supposed to make such decisions rather than the Legislature, and violates a court-ordered settlement directing the name be changed which was reached by the NCAA, the state and the Board of Higher Education. The students also allege the new law violates their 14th Amendment rights in that the name and logo are harmful and disparaging to Native Americans.
Links to the paper work filed (Civil Cover Sheet) and (Complaint and Jury Trial Demand)


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