Three seeking U.S. District judge position including 2 Native attorneys

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin

Tracey Zephier

Sarah Collins

By Tom Lawrence, Special to Native Sun News Today

SIOUX FALLS—Two Native American lawyers with impressive resumes are seeking an appointment to the federal bench.
Tracey Zephier and Sarah Collins are vying with former Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin for the seat to be vacated by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Viken of Rapid City, who will move to senior status on Sept. 1.
President Joe Biden will make the decision on who will replace Viken. It’s a lifetime appointment and requires the approval of the U.S. Senate.
Biden also will name appointees to several other South Dakota posts, including U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal and two leadership positions in U.S. Department of Agriculture posts. Those jobs regularly turn over when there is a change in presidential administrations.
The federal judge post, however, only opens when a judge retires or dies. South Dakota has five federal judges, all of whom were appointed by either President Bill Clinton or President Barack Obama.
Zephier, a Sturgis resident, is the attorney general of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She said she is “indeed interested in the position.”
Zephier was the executive director of the South Dakota Equal Justice Commission, which was created by the South Dakota Supreme Court. Zephier, known then as Tracey Fischer, was a law clerk for South Dakota Chief Justice Robert A. Miller in 2019-20.
She earned undergraduate degrees in business management and accounting from National University in Rapid City and received her law degree from Yale University in 1999.
Zephier has worked in private business, as a banker and in economic development, and taught at the University of South Dakota School of Law and Oglala Lakota College. Zephier’s heritage reflects South Dakota, since her mother was Lakota Sioux while her father was of Norwegian ancestry.
Collins is an assistant U.S. attorney based in Rapid City who has been with the Department of Justice for more than 10 years. She serves as the office’s senior litigation counsel.
Collins earned her undergraduate degree from Colorado State University and her law degree at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She was a deputy district attorney, senior deputy DA and then chief deputy DA in Colorado before returning to South Dakota in 2010.
During her career, she has acted as lead counsel in over 160 trials before state and federal courts in a variety of case types including violent crimes in Indian Country, child internet exploitation, firearms offenses and white collar crimes, according to her resume.
Collins received the 2020 U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in Indian Country for the prosecution of former Indian Health Services Dr. Stanley Weber. She also authored a nationwide curriculum on tribal and local law enforcement on topics of search and seizure.
Collins also served on the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Board on Internet Crimes and was named to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime National Coordination Committee on American Indian/Alaska Native Sexual Assault Response.
She grew up in Rapid City and now lives in Box Elder, but her family’s roots are on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She is the step-daughter of Native Sun News Today Publisher Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota.
Collins confirmed she is a candidate for the position but does not know how the process will play out. “I have no idea where it’s headed,” she said.
Herseth Sandlin was South Dakota’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives from June 2004-2010. She is the recommended choice of the South Dakota Democratic Party to replace Viken.
Herseth Sandlin is a 1997 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. She served as a judicial law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Charles B. Kornmann, who is based in Aberdeen, and for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District.
Under her maiden name Herseth, she briefly practiced law in Washington, D.C., and taught at Georgetown. But her eyes were mostly focused on public service, carrying on a family tradition of Democratic politics.
Her grandfather Ralph Herseth was governor from 1959-60, her grandmother Lorna served as secretary of state from 1973-79. Her father Lars Herseth served eight years in both the South Dakota House of Representatives and the state Senate and was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1986, losing a close race to Republican nominee George Mickelson, whose father also was governor.
Stephanie Herseth served as executive director of the South Dakota Farmers Union Foundation after losing a congressional race to Gov. Bill Janklow in 2002.
Following Janklow’s resignation after a fatal automobile crash, Herseth won a special election to fill the seat in June 2004, defeating state Sen. Larry Diedrich.
She was re-elected that fall and again in 2006 and 2008. But Herseth Sandlin, as she became known after marrying former Texas Rep. Max Sandlin, was defeated by then-state Rep. Kristi Noem in 2010.
Herseth Sandlin never again sought public office despite repeated entreaties from the state Democratic Party and her supporters.
Instead, she worked for a Washington, D.C., law firm, taught classes at South Dakota State University, and served as general counsel and vice president of corporate development for Raven Industries in Sioux Falls.
In 2017, she was named president of Augustana University on Aug. 1, 2017. The new position returned Herseth Sandlin to the spotlight, as she sought to have Augustana join the Summit League and compete in Division 1 athletics. The request was rejected by the league in 2020.
While it would seem Herseth Sandlin is an ideal choice for the bench, could be three sticking points. Her legal experience is thin, with no real work in the field for a decade. On Feb. 10, she was sworn into the federal bar, as was first reported by the Argus Leader.
South Dakota Democratic Party Chairman Randy Seiler, a former U.S. attorney, sponsored her for the position. He declined to confirm the names of the people submitted to the White House.
“There’s a lot of interest in these positions,” Seiler said.
In addition, Biden, who served 35 years in the U.S. Senate and was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987-95, has pledged to make appointments that reflect American diversity.
On March 30, he nominated the first Muslim federal judge in U.S. history, the first Asian American Pacific Islander woman to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the first woman of color to serve as a federal judge for the District of Maryland.
“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,” Biden said in a statement. “Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people — and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.”
Viken told the Rapid City Journal he would like to see a Native American receive strong consideration for the post.
Herseth Sandlin ruffled some feathers among liberal Democrats in South Dakota and members of the Obama administration when she voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Noem also broke with most Democrats on cap-and-trade, the financial and auto industry bailouts and same-sex marriage.
That will be recalled by former aides to President Obama who are now in the Biden administration.
The reported choice for U.S. attorney is Alison Ramsdell, a Flandreau native.
Ramsdell has led the Civil Rights Section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office since July 2016. Seiler, who became the U.S. attorney when Brendan Johnson, who held the post from 2009-15, stepped down to enter private practice on March 12, 2015.
Ron A. Parsons, who was named to the post by President Donald Trump, was asked to step down along with dozens of other Trump appointees. He resigned effective Feb. 26.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney and Criminal Chief Dennis R. Holmes was named to fill the position until Biden nominates a candidate who is approved by the U.S. Senate. The U.S. attorney handles all federal cases as well as serious crimes committed by adults.
Biden also will name a U.S. Marshal. The post is currently held by Daniel C. Mosteller, the former superintendent of the South Dakota Highway Patrol.
In addition, Biden will select a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development state director, a Farm Service Agency state executive director and name five members to the South Dakota Farm Service Agency State Committee. These posts do not require Senate approval.