US SC Finds No Racial Bias, Upholds Native American Adoption Law

International

oi-Sanjeev Nayak

In a significant ruling, the US Supreme Court upheld the decades-old federal standards that give preferences to Native Americans and tribal members in the adoption or foster care placements of Native American children, rejecting a challenge that claimed that parts of the law were racially biased against non-Native Americans.

The 7-2 ruling threw out a lower court’s decision that had struck down as a violation of the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law a requirement that “other Indian families” receive preference in adoption and foster care after members of a child’s extended family or tribe members, reported Reuters.

The justices found that the plaintiffs — the Republican-governed State of Texas and three non-Native American families — lacked the necessary legal standing to bring the case. The justices also rejected some specific challenges to the law, known as the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, on other grounds.

The decision came a week after the court ruled against a challenge to another federal law aimed at protecting racial minorities, with the justices rejecting a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama found to dilute the clout of Black voters.

Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act to end a longstanding practice in the United States of removing many Native American children from their families and placing them with non-Native Americans. At the time the law was passed, 25% to 35% of Native American children were removed in States with large Native American populations, according to court papers.

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President Joe Biden, whose administration defended the law, said the decision keeps in place a vital protection for tribal sovereignty and Native American children. “Our Nation’s painful history looms large over today’s decision,” Biden said in a statement.

“In the not-so-distant past, Native children were stolen from the arms of the people who loved them. They were sent to boarding schools or to be raised by non-Indian families — all with the aim of erasing who they are as Native people and tribal citizens. These were acts of unspeakable cruelty that affected generations of Native children and threatened the very survival of Tribal Nations.”

Native American groups have cheered the decision. “We are overcome with joy,” the Reuters reported quoting a statement of a coalition of Native American organisations, including the Indian Child Welfare Association and the National Congress of American Indians.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2017, was brought against the US Interior Department and federal officials by Texas and the three families who sought to adopt or foster Native American children. They included Texas couple Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, who in 2018 adopted a child whose mother is a member of the Navajo Nation.

Among other claims, the plaintiffs said the statute violated the Constitution both by racially discriminating against non-Native Americans and by having the federal government direct the actions of State agencies in adoption matters.