Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press about today’s ruling in a case in Martin, S.D., a town that lies between the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian reservations:

MARTIN, S.D. (AP) – A federal appeals court has sided with the South Dakota city of Martin in a lawsuit alleging that its city council districts diminished the voting rights of Native Americans.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in its lawsuit that the district boundaries spread out the Indian vote and kept the voters from electing an Indian to the city council, even though Indians represented one-third of the city’s population.

The case has been back and forth between federal court in South Dakota and three-judge panels of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2002. In a ruling Wednesday, the full 8th Circuit Court in a 7-4 vote affirmed a federal judge’s ruling five years ago to dismiss the lawsuit.

Tags: 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Martin South Dakota, Native American news, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Rosebud Indian Reservation, voting rights