Chief justice candidates share ambitions for North Dakota court system

1 hour ago

KVRR Staff,

Ndsupremecourt Dec 18 2023 014 1536x1024 — North Dakota Supreme Court justices, from left, Chief Jon Jensen, Lisa Fair McEvers and Jerod Tufte listen to arguments during a hearing on Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — The two candidates for next chief justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court have a vision for a better-resourced and more efficient judiciary.

Justices Lisa Fair McEvers and Jerod Tufte are vying for the role after Jon Jensen announced last month he will step down at the end of 2025.

The chief justice is selected by a vote of the Supreme Court and state district court judges.

The court system will count the ballots and announce a winner Wednesday.

The chief justice is responsible for handling some court-related administrative duties, in addition to serving as the public face of North Dakota’s judicial system. The chief has no more voting power on the court than the other justices.

“The description that has been used over the years is, the chief justice is the leader among equals,” Jensen said.

This is Tufte’s first time running for chief justice. Fair McEvers previously sought the position in 2019.

Fair McEvers

Fair McEvers said her career in the North Dakota court system dates back to 1987, when she began working in court administration for the Northeast Judicial District.

“I kind of know the history going back a long ways,” she said of the state’s judiciary.

Fair McEvers said the job sparked her interest in the law and inspired her to become an attorney. She graduated from the University of North Dakota Law School in 1997.

She went on to serve as assistant state’s attorney for Cass County and commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Labor from 2005 to 2010. Fair McEvers then served as a judge in the East Central Judicial District in Fargo.

She became a justice in 2014 when she was appointed by former Gov. Jack Dalrymple to fill a vacancy left by former Justice Mary Muehlen Maring. Fair McEvers was then elected to the court to serve a two-year term in 2016 and a 10-year term in 2018.

Fair McEvers is the fourth woman to serve on the North Dakota Supreme Court. She said one of the most gratifying parts of her job is being a role model to young people.

“I want people to see that women can do this job and do it well,” Fair McEvers said.

If elected chief justice, she said she would look for ways to increase resources for district court judges.

“I know how busy they are, and how hard it is to find time to write the opinions and do the research and do all that by yourself,” Fair McEvers said.

One of her priorities would be eliminating judicial referee positions in state courts, she said. Judicial referees are attorneys that are available to decide certain cases — including juvenile, small claims and traffic court cases — on behalf of district court judges. There are five in the state.

Fair McEvers said she thinks the court system should invest in more judge positions rather than continuing to keep judicial referees part of the court system.

“The judicial referees are very good, don’t get me wrong, but folks have a right to have their case heard by a district judge,” she said.

She said she wouldn’t want to take anyone’s job away, but would support phasing the referee positions out gradually.

Tufte

Before he became an attorney, Tufte was a software engineer. After graduating from Arizona State University College of Law in 2002, he worked on patent and licensing issues for tech companies, he said.

Tufte also clerked for a judge on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and was the state’s attorney for Kidder County and Sheridan County. He served as legal counsel for Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple from 2011 to 2014, and went on to become a judge in the Southeast Judicial District in Valley City.

Tufte was elected to the Supreme Court in 2016.

He described himself as an admirer of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, particularly Thomas’ belief that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted based on how its authors would have understood it at the time of its adoption. The legal theory, often referred to as “originalism,” has been invoked by Thomas and other conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices in landmark decisions like the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“He’s just got this courage to admit that maybe the court’s been wrong from time to time,” Tufte said of Thomas.

Tufte said one of his objectives is to empower the court system to experiment with artificial intelligence.

He chairs the North Dakota judiciary’s artificial intelligence task force, and said he would want to continue in that position if elected chief justice. He’s also on a task force that’s exploring ways to address North Dakota’s shortage of lawyers.

Tufte said his experience in the governor’s office would help the court collaborate with other branches of government to achieve its policy goals.

“The chief justice needs to be able to build bridges with different factions,” he said. “That’s what I bring to the table.”

Both Fair McEvers and Tufte said they would continue many initiatives started under Jensen’s leadership, including the ongoing effort to make all clerks of court state employees. Some clerks are still county employees, a holdover from when county courts and district courts were separate. The courts merged in the 1990s.

Fair McEvers and Tufte took opposing views on the court’s recent 3-2 decision on the state’s near-total abortion ban. The majority opinion, which Fair McEvers joined, found the law unconstitutional. Tufte authored the dissenting opinion. Since it takes a vote of four justices to declare a law unconstitutional, the law was upheld.

Jensen

Jensen’s predecessors, former justices Gerald VandeWalle and Ralph Erickstad, served as chief justice for a combined 45 years. Their decades-long service was unusual, however, Jensen said. He said before their terms as chief, the position “rotated fairly frequently.”

Most of the chief’s work pertains to “day-to-day management issues,” Jensen said. The chief justice typically decides minor legal matters that don’t need to go before the full court, for instance, and is also responsible for appointments to some committees and work groups, he said.

The chief represents the judicial system on special occasions, including delivering the state of the judiciary address at each legislative session.

“The role of chief justice can be as easy or hard as the chief justice wants it to be,” Jensen said. “You can take on challenges to improve the judicial system, or alternatively, you can sit in the ceremonial role.”

He noted in a letter announcing his resignation that the court system has added three new judges and 29 full-time employees under his tenure, in addition to working to increase district judge salaries.

Jensen said part of the reason he’s not seeking reelection is because he wants to spend more time with his family. He felt it was time to yield the role to someone who can commit more energy to it, he said. Jensen will continue serving as a justice.

“I really do believe that if you’re in a position of leadership, you need to use that leadership to make whatever you’re leading better,” Jensen said.

North Dakota Monitor reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.