Image 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)
Image via Wikipedia 
