ANCHORAGE, AK – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Native families have a right to raise our children in our traditions, Native children have a right to their culture, and Alaska Natives and American Indian tribes have a right to persevere — based on our political classification — under the U.S. Constitution.
In a 7-2 decision, the Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act. Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito dissented. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion for the majority in Brackeen v. Haaland, stating the Court rejected all the challenges to ICWA “some on the merits and others for lack of standing.”
Chad and Jennifer Brackeen, alongside other non-Native prospective adoptive couples, and states, challenged the constitutionality of ICWA. They argued it violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of race and forcing the states to carry out federal mandates for placing Native children who were removed from their homes. The Court rejected these arguments, citing over a century of precedent that classifies Alaska Natives and American Indians as a political versus racial group.
Congress enacted ICWA in 1978 after it found that hundreds of thousands of Indian children had been removed from their homes, sometimes by force. The law established minimum federal standards for removing Native children from their families and required state courts to notify tribes when an Indian child is removed from his or her home. ICWA also implemented a framework for foster and adoption placements, which requires first preference be given to a member of the child’s extended family, then other members of the tribe, and if neither of those is available, a home with a different tribal family. That placement preference was at issue in Brackeen.
“Like most Alaska Native and American Indian tribes from across the country, we have been anxiously awaiting this decision,” said AFN President Julie Kitka. “The wait is over, and the victory is ours. Our ways of life will continue through our children.”
