Standing Strong for Native Families
A website from the Native American Rights Fund
On October 5, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear N.R. v. Ellison. Court documents on the Tribal Supreme Court Project website Questions presented: History: Petition was filed 5/4/2026. Petition was denied 10/5/2026. Ruling below: In the matter of the welfare of the children of L.K.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not take up the most recent attempt to dismantle the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, according to the docket posted Monday, leaving in place a Minnesota lower court’s ruling. Read the full story at The Imprint.
A legal team that has repeatedly challenged the constitutionality of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act is again taking the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. Read the full story at the Imprint.
On Nov. 9, the eyes of Indian Country will once again turn toward the nation’s capital, where the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a law passed in 1978 that enshrines tribal governments’ right to oversee foster care placements in cases involving Native children. Read the full article at … Read more
Read the full article at the Navajo-Hopi Observer website.
Today, five tribes filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Brackeen v. Haaland defending the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Read the full article at Indian Country Today.
Read the full article in The Desert Sun.
For the last 44 years, a federal law called the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) has sought to prevent these situations by prioritizing that Native children adoptees be placed, when possible, with Native relatives or other members within the child’s tribe. But after months of consequential rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority, four … Read more
On March 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear this case: R.K.B. et al., v. E.T. Briefs and Pleadings Docket No. 17-942 Question Presented: The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, 25 U.S.C. 1901–1963, applies to state custody proceedings involving an Indian child. State courts of last resort are divided on the following … Read more
Two types of challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), 25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq., now feature prominently: equal protection challenges and challenges based on the “intrafamily dispute” exception to ICWA. A petition for a writ of certiorari to decide both issues is currently pending in one such case: S.S. v. Stephanie H. … Read more
Without comment, the justices on Tuesday denied a petition in Renteria v. Superior Court of California, Tulare County. The move, which came in an order list, ends a lawsuit which claimed ICWA was based on “race” and should be declared unconstitutional. Read the full article at the Indianz website.
Briefs and Pleadings Docket No. 17-942 Question Presented: The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, 25 U.S.C. 1901–1963, applies to state custody proceedings involving an Indian child. State courts of last resort are divided on the following critical question, a question that likely affects thousands of adoption proceedings each year, and on which this court … Read more
The conservative Goldwater Institute is attacking the Indian Child Welfare Act again.The group has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an ICWA case from California. The petition in Renteria v. Superior Court of California, Tulare County claims the 1978 law is based on “race” and should be deemed unconstitutional. Read the full article at the Indianz.com website.
Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition in S.S. v. Colorado River Indian Tribes. The action, which came in an order list on Monday morning, lets stand a decision from Arizona, where opponents of ICWA tried to undermine the landmark law by claiming it is based on “race.” The Arizona Court of Appeals … Read more
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a foster family’s challenge to the adoption of their former foster daughter under the Indian Child Welfare Act. Read the full article at the ABA [American Bar Association] Journal website.
R.P. v. LA County Department of Children and Family Services U.S. Supreme Court Briefs and Pleadings Docket No. 16-500 Question Presented: The questions presented are: (1) Whether ICWA applies where the child has not been removed from an Indian family or community. (2) Whether ICWA’s adoptive placement preferences, 25 U.S.C.1915(a), require removal from a foster … Read more
The United States Supreme Court recently issued its opinion in the case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. This document is designed to: Summarize the decision — what the case held about the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), what it did not hold, and what it implied. Provide advocates for tribes, birth parents (particularly unwed … Read more
The Supreme Court, over the dissents of two Justices, cleared the way Friday afternoon for a South Carolina couple to adopt the child known publicly as “Baby Veronica.” In a three-sentence order, the full Court turned aside — without an explanation — the plea by the birth father to delay a state court ruling permitting … Read more
On July 12, 2013, Christy Maldonado, the birth mother in the Supreme Court case, Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, told her side of the story in the Washington Post. In the summer of 2009, I made the most difficult decision of my life: to place my baby, Veronica Rose, with adoptive parents. Many know her … Read more
Baby Veronica’s biological father, stepmother and paternal grandparents have filed court papers in Oklahoma to adopt the 3-year-old girl, a move that dissenting U.S. Supreme Court justices warned could happen and will likely complicate the custody dispute. Read more at The Post and Courier website.
Supreme Court Thwarts ICWA Intent in Baby Veronica Case (Indian Country Today) 6/25/2013 US Supreme Court Case Reignites Discussion Over Welfare of American Indian Children (Washington Post) 6/26/2013 Happy Ruling for Adoptive Couple, Uncertainty for Baby Girl (NPR) 6/26/2013 The Court Got Baby Veronica Wrong (Slate.com) 6/26/2013 Ruling on Adopted Indian Kids Threatens Tribes, Some … Read more
A split decision on ‘Baby Veronica’ court battle (Tulsa World) 6/26/13. Supreme Court Strikes a Hard Blow to Tribal Sovereignty in Adoption Case (Common Dreams) 6/26/13. Supreme Court says Native American child doesn’t have to be given to biological father (Washington Post) 6/25/13. Justices Rule in Favor of Adoption of Indian Child (NY Times) 6/25/13. … Read more
Find the opinion here. Commentary will be published soon on the blog. The syllabus from the ruling: “The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which establishes federal standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children, was enacted to address “the consequences . . . of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children … Read more
The Baby Veronica Case, recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, is one of the most important Indian legal battles of the last generation. It is the story of Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation, who has invoked the Indian Child Welfare Act to prevent Christina Maldonado, the non-Indian mother of his baby … Read more
Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl challenges parts of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, this case puts one little girl at the center of a storm of legal intricacies, Native American tribal culture, and heart-wrenching personal stakes. Listen to the entire podcast (37 minutes) at the Radiolab website.
I am outraged by Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. As a lifelong civil rights activist, I remember the struggle to pass the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978 and the reasons it is still so badly needed to protect our families and Native American cultures. Read more at Indian Country Today.
Native American studies chair Bruce Duthu and writing professor Julie Kalish discussed Baby Veronica’s future in a panel on Friday. See more at The Dartmouth.com.
The constitutionality of ICWA is based on two propositions: First, these special laws for Indians are not race based. And second, Congress has the authority to issue special laws with regard to Indian people and tribes. If the Baby Girl Court rejected either of these positions, not only would ICWA be unconstitutional, most of Indian … Read more
High-Profile Custody Case New York Times 2013/04/26 To the Editor: Re (editorial, April 16): Your editorial about the case now before the United States Supreme Court says the child should be returned by the biological father, Dusten Brown, to her putat… Baby Veronica and the Law of Race Indian Country Today Media Network 2013/04/28 Upon reading my … Read more
On April 23, 2013, petition for certiorari was filed with the Supreme Court for Nebraska v. Elise M., a Nebraska case that looks at: (1) Whether ICWA prohibits a state court from considering the ’best interests of the child” when determining whether “good cause” exists to deny the transfer of an ongoing child welfare case. … Read more
In the context of the recent Supreme Court hearing in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, Walter Olson,a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, critiques the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act in this April 22, 2013, opinion piece at reason.com.
An April 20, 2013, letter to the editor from John Nichols, the lawyer for Dusten Brown in the Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl briefly speaks to trends in Native American adoption cases. See the letter at the Washington Post website. Mr. Nichols’ letter was in response to the April 16, 2013, Washington … Read more
SCOTUS to rule in Baby Veronica case by midsummer Live 5 WCSC 2013/04/16 WASHINGTON, DC (WCSC)- After listening to an hour and a half of oral arguments, Supreme Court justices officially submitted Baby Veronica custody case hearing at the national level. Now it’s a waiting game … Adoption Case Brings Rare Family Law Dispute To Supreme … Read more
This second read-through, by Matthew Fletcher and Kate Fort, incorporates a broader analysis of how the argument went on the merits. Specifically, it addresses: Best Interests of the Child, Interpretation of Sections 1912(d) and (f), Assorted Weirdness — Chief Justice Roberts Edition, Assorted Weirdness — Adoptive Parents as Victim.
On The Voice of Russia, American Edition, radio station, the Due Diligence show interviewed three attorneys about the Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl case. Interviews included: Phillip J. McCarthy, who represents the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and wrote an amicus brief supporting the adoptive couple, Lori Alvino McGill, a constitutional attorney for Latham & … Read more
The Michigan Law Review just published an opinion piece: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl: Two-and-a-Half Ways To Destroy Indian Law. Article excerpt: “In December 2011, Judge Malphrus of the South Carolina family court ordered Matt and Melanie Capobianco to relinquish custody of Veronica, their two-year-old, adopted daughter, to her biological father, Dusten Brown. A federal … Read more
A transcript for today’s oral argument in Adoptive Parents v. Baby Girl can be found here. Audio recordings of oral arguments heard by the U.S. Supreme Court are made available to the public at the end of each argument week. If you are interested in learning more about the case or reading briefs that were … Read more
John Echohawk, Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund; Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians; and Terry Cross, Executive Director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, have published an op-ed in Politico on Adoptive Parents v. Baby Girl, which was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court today. To … Read more
The Tribal Supreme Court Project – the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) – along with the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), will host a national teleconference and briefing to review the arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. During the call, participants … Read more
Casey Family Programs releases a press release on Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl case before the U.S. Supreme Court: SEATTLE – Casey Family Programs with the support of 17 other national child welfare organizations has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The case … Read more
The United States Supreme Court next Tuesday hears argument in a head-spinning case that blends the rank bigotry of the nation’s past with the glib sophistry of the country’s present. The case is about a little girl and a Nation, a family and a People. The question at the center of it has been asked … Read more
Q&A With Cherokee Counsel for Baby Veronica Case: Read the article published on 4/11/13 in Indian Country Today.
CATOOSA – Members of the National Indian Child Welfare Association on Monday asked for a federal law to be left intact as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to take up a Nowata family’s case next week. Read the entire article published in Tulsa World on 4/09/13.
U.S. Supreme Court hears “Baby Veronica” case next week. 16 months ago, a South Carolina court ordered the adoptive parents of a child known to many as “Baby Veronica” to give her to her biological father who lives in Bartlesville. Since then, this case has been tied up in the courts.. read more.
Background: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a case in which the South Carolina Supreme Court held that a Native American (Indian) child could not be adopted by non-Indian parents without complying with the requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The court ordered the child returned to her biological father after she had … Read more
The Tribal Supreme Court Project (a project of the Native American Rights Fund in partnership with the National Congress of American Indians) is providing copies of court documents for the Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (12-399). The page includes a link to the court’s docket sheet, lower court opinions and briefs, and … Read more
As anticipated, the Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, an Indian Child Welfare Act case that’s before the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief supports Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation whose rights are at issue in the case. Government attorneys urged the Supreme Court to … Read more
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 Time: 11 a.m. Pacific / 2 p.m. Eastern Presenter: Adrian Smith, JD, MSW, NICWA government affairs associate The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear the case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, a South Carolina adoption case involving the Indian Child Welfare Act. This high profile and emotionally charged case has garnered significant … Read more
In response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision to hear Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, the New York Times recently featured this discussion of ICWA in its Room for Debate opinion pages. At http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/24/adoptive-parents-vs-tribal-rights : Should the adoption of American Indian children receive special consideration, or is it too focused on race? Kevin Noble Maillard, … Read more