North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Jerod Tufte asks a question during oral arguments on Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)
WATFORD CITY, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A Watford City attorney has filed to challenge North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Jerod Tufte’s bid for reelection.
Ariston Johnson is a civil litigator whose practice includes oil and gas law, among other areas.
Johnson earned his law degree from the College of William and Mary in 2007, and now works as a partner at a Watford City law firm, Johnson and Sundeen. He said his career as a private practice civil attorney would bring unique expertise to the court.
Johnson said he also thinks the court could benefit from having someone from the western region of the state on the bench.
“I think that the court is at its best when there’s a balance of experiences,” he said.
Johnson last year applied to fill the seat left vacant by Justice Daniel Crothers, who retired in February. Gov. Kelly Armstrong ultimately chose Fargo criminal defense attorney Mark Friese for the position.
Johnson named former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as one of his favorite legal minds.
Tufte is the only one of the sitting justices who first joined the high court by way of election, as opposed to appointed by the governor. He successfully ran to succeed former Justice Dale Sandstrom in 2016.
“I’ll be running on my record — including more than nine years serving North Dakotans on our highest court,” Tufte said in a statement.
A former computer engineer, Tufte told the North Dakota Monitor previously he wants to help the state court modernize its technology. He’s involved in the state court system’s task force to address North Dakota’s lawyer shortage as well as an artificial intelligence working group. Tufte has described himself as an admirer of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Tufte recently ran for the position of chief justice, losing to Lisa Fair McEvers. Before joining the high court, Tufte was a state’s attorney as well as general counsel for Gov. Jack Dalrymple.
The last time an incumbent justice faced a challenger was 2018, when Robert Bolinske ran against Fair McEvers. Fair McEvers was first appointed to the high court by then-Gov. John Hoeven in 2014.
Bolinske also ran against Tufte in the 2016 race for Sandstrom’s seat.
North Dakota Supreme Court seats are nonpartisan. The two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary will advance to the general election.
After serving two years, appointed justices must run for election to stay on the court.
Justice Douglas Bahr, who was appointed to the court in 2023, is running unopposed this year to complete the remaining eight years of his term.
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