A federal judge has ordered Fremont County in Wyoming to change to a district system for its county commissioners.

Judge Alan B. Johnson previously ruled that the county's at-large system diluting the rights of Indian voters. In a new decision, he said the county must draw up five districts -- including one where members of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe are the majority.

"The plans proposed by defendants perpetuate the separation, isolation and racial polarization in the county, guaranteeing that the non-Indian majority continues to cancel out the voting strength of the minority," Johnson wrote as he rejected the county's alternative plans, the Associated Press reported.

The county is being represented by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a group that has lost a number of Indian voting rights cases. The group has fought protections for sacred sites, opposed subsistence rights for Alaska Natives and has represented clients who opposed tribal sovereignty

Get the Story:
Judge sides with American Indians in voting case (AP 8/11)

Lawsuit Documents:
Large v. Fremont County (ACLU)

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