SCOTUS to Decide if American Indian Babies Can Be Ripped From Adoptive Parents on the Basis of Skin Color

American Indians are the only group of U.S. citizens whose child custody claims are decided solely on the basis of race instead of the best interests of the child.

Under federal law, it doesn’t matter in custody disputes if a child’s home is a crime-infested haven for violent gangs and drug dealers. It doesn’t matter if a child’s home is an avenue of emotional, physical, and even sexual abuse. What does matter is the color of the child’s skin.

In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) codifying this institutional racism. Passed out of fear that the adoption of American Indian children would erode Indian culture, ICWA mandates that children who are up for adoption with the slightest trace of Indian blood be placed under tribal custody instead of a non-Indian family. In practice, this means adoptive parents can have their children stripped away from the only parents they’ve ever known to live on a reservation hundreds of miles away at the will of a tribe. . .

On Nov. 9, the high court will hear oral arguments in the case Haaland v. Brackeen, where the court will decide on the ICWA’s constitutionality.

The Alliance’s amicus brief claims the law violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and exceeds congressional authority in child custody cases, which are decided at the state level. (Read more from “SCOTUS to Decide if American Indian Babies Can Be Ripped From Adoptive Parents on the Basis of Skin Color” HERE)

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