Robert McEwen, an attorney for Nebraska Appleseed, said the high court’s ruling likely won’t affect many Native child welfare cases because the court ruled narrowly on the law Tuesday. That's because most Native child welfare cases involve children being taken from Native parents who had custody of their children, he said. Brown didn't have custody of his daughter prior to his efforts to gain custody of her.

McEwen said the lower court would need to consider whether to terminate Brown’s parental rights and likely would place some emphasis on the fact that his daughter has now lived with him for the past year and a half.

“The Supreme Court chose to narrowly tailor its opinion to the facts of the case while still upholding the law as good,” he said. “It remains one of the best practices within child welfare for Native children.”

Misty Thomas, social services director for the Santee Sioux Tribe, said she couldn’t think of a child custody dispute involving a Santee Sioux family in which a parent who had never had custody of a child was suing for custody. She said she still feared the ruling could hurt efforts to reunite Native children with their Native families.