Children can continue to be protected under law preventing removal of kids from their families for fostering or adoption

The US supreme court has ruled that Native American children can continue to be protected under federal law against being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption, rejecting a petition from a white couple who argued that the provision was a form of racial discrimination.

  • ConstableJelly@beehaw.orgEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    "The plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, are a white couple living in Texas who want to adopt a now 4-year-old girl whose birth mother is Navajo. The couple had already adopted the girl’s brother, who shares the same birth mother, and when the girl was born in 2018 and fostered by another family, the couple filed for custody of her, too.

    But ICWA establishes that children in foster care who are eligible for tribal membership should be placed with extended family, another member of their tribe or another Native American family whenever possible. And a relative — a great-aunt who lives in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and visits regularly with the children’s older siblings — also wants to adopt the girl."*

    I’m sad for the children caught in the middle of this fight, though I doubt their case is unique. But trying to tank the entire ICWA, which would have apparently opened the door to question other sovereign rights of indigenous tribes, is such a gross overextension. Glad to hear this news.

    *https://religionnews.com/2022/11/09/religion-plays-a-role-in-native-american-adoption-case-before-supreme-court/>>