In win for tribal rights, Supreme Court upholds Native adoption law

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a landmark Native American rights law Thursday in a ruling that surprised tribes – quite pleasantly.

The 7-2 decision in Haaland v. Brackeen dismissed, in part on the merits and in part on procedural grounds, an array of challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 law regulating foster and adoption proceedings for Native children in state courts. The law has been challenged many times, and it’s likely to be challenged again in the near future.

But the ruling today preserves, for now, a law that tribes view as critical to the best interests of Native children, and critical to preserving the long-term political and cultural viability of Native people as a whole.

“They punted on one or two key issues ... but it’s a very strong endorsement of the law,” says Kevin Washburn, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and a former assistant secretary of Indian Affairs.

The law “will remain intact and undisturbed,”