Imagine one of those wrenching custody cases in which every side seems to have the child’s interests at heart but almost every fact is disputed. Many people — including the child in the middle of the fight — have pain ahead of them, no matter the outcome. Now mix in America’s historical mistreatment of Native Americans and a major disagreement over a decades-old law meant to redress some of those wrongs, and you get the emotionally fraught tangle that the Supreme Court will consider Tuesday.

When Christinna Maldonado gave birth to Veronica, she had already selected Matt and Melanie Capobianco to be her daughter’s adoptive parents. The father, Dusten Brown, hadn’t supported Ms. Maldonado during her pregnancy, and he renounced his parental rights to her in a text message. But after he heard that Veronica would grow up with the Capobiancos, not her biological mother, Mr. Brown moved to obtain custody of the child. He wouldn’t have had much of a case except that he is part Native American, and a federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act, puts restrictions on the adoption of Native American children. After they had cared for Baby Veronica for two years, a South Carolina court made the Capobiancos give her back in 2011.