Human Rights Commission hears legislative roundup; bills on transgender rights, tenant heating, school rules tracked

Christina Sambor, an attorney representing the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, briefed the Fargo Human Rights Commission on the status of multiple bills in the 2025 North Dakota legislative session, including measures affecting transgender students, landlord obligations for heating, school rules for personal electronic devices and several high-profile social and criminal justice proposals.

The update matters because several of the measures discussed could affect civil-rights protections and local implementation: some bills have already moved through one chamber, others have failed, and several — including a landlord-temperature proposal and bills addressing school facilities and transgender issues — are expected to be debated after crossover between the House and Senate.

Sambor told commissioners the bill listed at the top of the coalition’s tracking sheet, House Bill 1144, “received a due pass…73 to 18” in the House. She said the bill would amend existing law on school bathroom and facility design and include provisions that would limit use of certain gender-neutral facilities by transgender students; the coalition is continuing to monitor and work on that measure. Sambor also described HB1181 (as listed in the coalition materials) as another effort to change state definitions related to gender in the Century Code and warned that changing statutory definitions could have wide-reaching and unexpected effects across other laws.

On housing and tenant protections, Sambor highlighted a bill introduced out of Fargo that would define a minimum indoor temperature standard for landlords. She described the draft language discussed in committee as proposing an October–April season and a floor of 68 degrees Fahrenheit for rented units in which tenants do not control the thermostat. Sambor said the statutory change would make temperature maintenance an explicit landlord duty in the North Dakota Century Code rather than leaving “reasonable temperature” to landowner discretion; she noted federal public-housing guidance and precedents in other states (such as Minnesota) that informed the proposal.

Sambor summarized several other measures tracked by the coalition: a bill to decriminalize HIV transmission (House Bill 1217, described as recently passing the House), bills addressing conversion therapy and the Social Work Ethics Board and compact, multiple measures on library materials and “obscenity,” and a range of landlord–tenant proposals (security deposits, move-in/move-out inspections). She also flagged concurrent resolutions, including one that would urge the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit Obergefell v. Hodges and a proposed constitutional amendment changing the threshold for ballot referred measures to 60 percent. Sambor cautioned commissioners that some bills listed on the coalition’s document had already failed in their chamber of origin and that the status lines and hyperlinks on the coalition’s tracking sheet show committee actions, testimony, and bill versions.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions during the briefing. One commissioner sought details about the landlord-temperature language and how it would be enforced; Sambor said the proposal sought to create a statutory duty for landlords and that federal housing formulas and HUD guidance could inform enforcement questions in practice. Another asked about the cell-phone-in-school proposal; Sambor identified Senate Bill 2300 as the measure discussed and described it as requiring students to place personal electronic devices in secure containers for the school day, with limited medical exceptions, and noted an estimated appropriation to the Department of Public Instruction to supply containers. Sambor reported that the device bill failed in the Senate when the briefing was prepared.

Sambor emphasized the complexity of many of these proposals and offered to provide the commission with the coalition’s tracking document in an accessible format. She also recommended watching the afternoon House and Senate floor sessions for votes on several measures, including funding for programs addressing missing and murdered Indigenous people and homelessness programs.

Ending: The commission accepted the briefing and asked Sambor to share the coalition’s updated tracking document with the commission’s executive committee. Commissioners did not take formal action on any of the bills during the meeting; the presentation was informational.