{"id":15386,"date":"2021-04-09T11:57:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T16:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/three-seeking-u-s-district-judge-position-including-2-native-attorneys\/"},"modified":"2021-04-09T11:57:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T16:57:57","slug":"three-seeking-u-s-district-judge-position-including-2-native-attorneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/three-seeking-u-s-district-judge-position-including-2-native-attorneys\/","title":{"rendered":"Three seeking U.S. District judge position including 2 Native attorneys"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stephanie Herseth Sandlin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tracey Zephier<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sarah Collins<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By Tom Lawrence, Special to Native Sun News Today<\/p>\n

SIOUX FALLS\u2014Two Native American lawyers with impressive resumes are seeking an appointment to the federal bench.
\nTracey 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.
\nPresident Joe Biden will make the decision on who will replace Viken. It\u2019s a lifetime appointment and requires the approval of the U.S. Senate.
\nBiden 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.
\nThe 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.
\nZephier, a Sturgis resident, is the attorney general of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She said she is \u201cindeed interested in the position.\u201d
\nZephier 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.
\nShe earned undergraduate degrees in business management and accounting from National University in Rapid City and received her law degree from Yale University in 1999.
\nZephier 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\u2019s heritage reflects South Dakota, since her mother was Lakota Sioux while her father was of Norwegian ancestry.
\nCollins 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\u2019s senior litigation counsel.
\nCollins 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.
\nDuring 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.
\nCollins received the 2020 U.S. Attorney General\u2019s 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.
\nCollins also served on the U.S. Attorney General\u2019s Advisory Board on Internet Crimes and was named to the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Office for Victims of Crime National Coordination Committee on American Indian\/Alaska Native Sexual Assault Response.
\nShe grew up in Rapid City and now lives in Box Elder, but her family\u2019s 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.
\nCollins confirmed she is a candidate for the position but does not know how the process will play out. \u201cI have no idea where it\u2019s headed,\u201d she said.
\nHerseth Sandlin was South Dakota\u2019s 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.
\nHerseth 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.
\nUnder 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.
\nHer 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.
\nStephanie Herseth served as executive director of the South Dakota Farmers Union Foundation after losing a congressional race to Gov. Bill Janklow in 2002.
\nFollowing Janklow\u2019s resignation after a fatal automobile crash, Herseth won a special election to fill the seat in June 2004, defeating state Sen. Larry Diedrich.
\nShe 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.
\nHerseth Sandlin never again sought public office despite repeated entreaties from the state Democratic Party and her supporters.
\nInstead, 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.
\nIn 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.
\nWhile 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.
\nSouth 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.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest in these positions,\u201d Seiler said.
\nIn 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.
\nOn 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.
\n\u201cThis trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,\u201d Biden said in a statement. \u201cEach is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people \u2014 and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.\u201d
\nViken told the Rapid City Journal he would like to see a Native American receive strong consideration for the post.
\nHerseth 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.
\nThat will be recalled by former aides to President Obama who are now in the Biden administration.
\nThe reported choice for U.S. attorney is Alison Ramsdell, a Flandreau native.
\nRamsdell has led the Civil Rights Section in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s 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.
\nRon 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.
\nFirst 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.
\nBiden 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.
\nIn 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.<\/p>\n

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Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Tracey Zephier Sarah Collins By Tom Lawrence, Special to Native Sun News Today SIOUX FALLS\u2014Two 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 <\/p>\n

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