The Supreme Court is hearing a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act — a law that gives preference in the adoption process to kids' own extended families and tribes to keep them from being separated.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing Wednesday a challenge from Texas and several families who have adopted Native American children who are challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act.The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing Wednesday a challenge from Texas and several families who have adopted Native American children who are challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act.The U.S.
"About a third of native children were adopted away through ... child welfare agency actions," says Chuck Hoskin Jr., the chief of the Cherokee Nation."And of that group, about 85% were adopted outside of tribal families." Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, from the the Dallas Fort Worth area, are among the prospective adoptive parents who are challenging the law. The couple fostered a baby born to a Navajo mother and a Cherokee father, and, after the native mother's parental rights were terminated by the state, the Brackeens adopted the boy, with the agreement of the tribe.
The Brackeens' lawyer, Matthew McGill, says:"The real injustice of [ICWA] is that it deprives children of an individualized assessment of their own best interests, and it replaces that ... test with this hierarchy of preferences.""ICWA doesn't prevent an individualized assessment of the best placement for each child," says Kathryn Fort, director of the Indian Law Clinic at Michigan State University.
Lawyer Ian Gershengorn, representing the tribes, notes that"from the very first moments of our constitutional history Congress has legislated for Indians," and therefore, he maintains,"the idea that somehow doing so violates the Equal Protection Clause or is an impermissible racial classification just seems to me impossible to square with the text" of the Constitution.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
1978 Native child welfare law faces major Supreme Court challengeThe U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Wednesday on the most significant challenge to a law that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children.
Read more »
California Supreme Court: Who's Running In The Nov. 8 General Election And Why It MattersUnlike the U.S. Supreme Court, California’s highest court is more obscure and rarely issues polarizing opinions.
Read more »
In Arizona, small tribe watches warily as Supreme Court takes up Native adoption lawThis week, the Supreme Court will consider whether to gut the Indian Child Welfare Act, which prioritizes placing Native foster children with Native relatives.
Read more »
Justice Jackson issues her first Supreme Court opinionIn her dissent, Jackson wrote that she would have ordered a new look at Chinn’s case “because his life is on the line and given the substantial likelihood that the suppressed records wo…
Read more »
New Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in dissent, issues first Supreme Court opinionNew Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has issued her first Supreme Court opinion.
Read more »
Supreme Court seems ready to hasten challenges to federal agenciesThe Supreme Court hears arguments in two cases focused on the reach of agencies like the SEC and FTC, about whether businesses and individuals subject to enforcement action by either agency can go directly to federal court with their complaints.
Read more »