FARGO — A lawsuit alleging the University of North Dakota violated federal law by eliminating the women’s ice hockey program and seeking to have the university reinstate the program can proceed after a federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that said the women plaintiffs had no right to do so.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Wednesday, Aug. 14, that two of four North Dakota women who claimed UND and the North Dakota University System violated Title IX had standing to sue, overturning a 2023 ruling by U.S. District Judge Peter D. Welte that had dismissed the lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction.

Title IX is a set of federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.

Essentially, Welte said the women – Calli Forsberg of Devils Lake and Grand Forks residents Maya Tellman, Morgan Stenseth and Emily Becker – could not prove they suffered harm as a result of UND’s suspension of women’s hockey. The women filed their lawsuit in June 2022.

But Judge Davis Stras, writing for the Eighth Circuit, said Forsberg and Tellmann could prove that UND’s decision caused harm.

Forsberg was recruited by the school to play hockey before the program was shut down after the 2016-17 season and retains college eligibility, showing she is “able and willing” to play if the opportunity arises, Stras wrote. While Forsberg was not recruited by UND, she is academically qualified and also still has eligibility, the court said.

“To remedy their ‘ongoing’ injury, which continues each day they are unable to play, they are seeking a declaratory judgment and an injunction, each of which could lead to reinstatement into the program,” Stras wrote.

The court agreed with Welte’s view that Becker and Stenseth did not have standing to sue because their claims did not prove any damage caused by the UND’s decision.

Due to financial difficulties, UND eliminated women’s hockey in 2017.

In 2018, 11 former UND hockey players sued the school, claiming that their Title IX rights were violated when the program was cut.

That case was dismissed by a federal judge in 2019, but was reinstated after the former players appealed. The Eighth Circuit ruled that the case should be sent back to the North Dakota District Court for review.

The North Dakota Attorney General’s Office represented the North Dakota University System in the case and stated that the former players’ claims were moot because they were no longer enrolled at UND.

Plaintiffs’ attorney, Dan Siegel of Oakland, agreed and withdrew the lawsuit in December 2021, but told the Grand Forks Herald, “None of the existing plaintiffs are still eligible to play college hockey, so the court cannot award any of them meaningful compensation. We have not conceded the matter, and you will hear more from us soon.”

Siegel subsequently filed suit in 2022 on behalf of Forsberg, Tellman, Stenseth and Becker in the U.S. District Court for North Dakota, Eastern Division.

Welte dismissed that lawsuit in January 2023, siding with the North Dakota University System, which argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing to file a Title IX complaint against UND because none of the four women attended the university. In his ruling, Welte said the players’ claims of abuse of authority against UND and NDUS were “presumptive and hypothetical and therefore lack legal standing.”

Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He has been with The Forum full-time since 1990, except for a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk show.