Public records are at the heart of a battle between the ACLU of South Dakota, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the City of Martin. On one hand is the sovereign immunity of tribal entities, and on the other is the practical challenges of legal work.
Martin is on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and the city recently drew up new redistricting maps. The Oglala Sioux Tribe wants to see those maps to make sure they don’t violate the Voting Rights Act, so they submitted an open records request.
“In response to that open records request the City of Martin demanded the tribe agree to pay in advance attorney’s fees," ACLU legal director Stephanie Amiotte said. "Furthermore, indicated that if they were not going to agree to prepay attorneys’ fees that they would be required to waive their tribal immunity in order to get the records.”
The ACLU is appealing that decision on behalf of the tribe, arguing the potential cost to access the documents in question is an “extreme stipulation” imposed on the tribe.
Amiotte said waiving sovereign immunity is no small ask to a tribe.
“It also singles out the tribe as a requestor in particular because it is demanding they waive something that is a significant feature of their tribal sovereignty – and that is immunity from suit," Amiotte said. "That is something that is unique to tribes and other entities, like the State of South Dakota would also have sovereign immunity.”
In response, City of Martin city attorney Sara Frankenstein wrote in a statement the requests required legal analysis to determine if the documents were excluded from public disclosure laws, and that the documents requested spanned a 20-year window. She also offered a different interpretation of statute involving the proposed attorney’s fees.
“The City was unable to initially quantify the total fee due to the number of documents requested," the statement said. "That would need to be searched and cassette tapes of meetings to be listened to in order to find responsive documents.”