Old Person v. Brown

312 F.3d 1036 Earl OLD PERSON; Carol Juneau; Joe MacDonald; Jeannine Padilla, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Bob BROWN, Secretary of State for the State of Montana; Judy Martz, Governor of the State of Montana, Defendants-Appellees. No. 02-35171. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted August 7, 2002. Filed December 4, 2002. Lauglin McDonald, American Civil Liberties Union, Atlanta, GA, for the plaintiffs-appellants. Sarah A. Bond, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, MT, for the defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Philip M. Pro, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-96-00004-PMP. Before NOONAN, HAWKINS and GOULD, Circuit Judges. OPINION GOULD, Circuit Judge. 1 We enter again the turbulent and at times turbid waters of voting rights litigation. Four American Indian plaintiffs appeal the district court's judgment in favor of defendant officials of the State of Montana on the plaintiffs' vote-dilution claim under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973 . The district court held that the plaintiffs had standing to allege Native American vote dilution only with respect to the House and…