Flagstaff, Ariz.: The US Supreme Court has been asked to review a case that focused on whether Native Americans should have preference in adopting Native children.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued an sharply divided decision in April on the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. The law gives priority to Native American families in the care and adoption proceedings of Native American children, and places reporting and other requirements on states.
The appeals court upheld the authority of the law and Congress to enforce it.
But the judges invalidated the placement preferences of some laws, including Native American families and Native foster homes, saying they violate equal protection rights under the Constitution.
The court also ruled that certain law provisions unconstitutionally govern the duties of state officials in matters of adoption.
Now, four petitions are seeking review. They ask the US Supreme Court to understand the complex decision that had many partly dissenting and partly agreeing opinions. On some issues, most appeals courts agreed. On others, the court is bound, meaning that the original decision of the US District Court in Texas prevailed on the issues. Decisions of the Court of Appeal on issues are not considered to be precedent.
The states of Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, and seven individuals want the law to be taken out of three non-native couples and the biological mother of a Native American child who was adopted by a non-native family. The children have been nominated or potentially nominated as Navajo or Cherokee, White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Yleseta del Sur Pueblo.
The district court sided with states and individuals who held the Indian Child Welfare Act unconstitutional because it was racially motivated and violated the equal protection clause.
A panel of the 5th Circuit disagreed with the lower court. The majority of the court agreed to hear the case and upheld the determination that the law was based on political relations between federally recognized tribes and the US government, not race.
The main defendants are the US Department of the Interior and a handful of Native American tribes asking the Supreme Court to determine whether the plaintiffs stood to challenge the law’s appointment priorities. He has long supported the law to protect Native American families and their cultures, and wants it to be fully upheld.
The case is the most significant challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act since its passage in 1978. Studies have shown that previously, a third of Native American children were being taken from their homes by private and state agencies, including churches. -run programs, and placed them in mostly white families or boarding schools in an effort to assimilate.
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