Upon reading my first column on the Baby Veronica oral argument, a policy wonk friend of mine wrote, “This is not about race. It is about treachery.” She could be right. If you searched the Cherokee Nation registry for my name, you would have to know it appears there as “Stephen.” Did the adoption lawyers make an innocent mistake or accomplish purposeful deception? What about timing the adoption to coincide with the Cherokee father’s deployment to Iraq? Biology rather than tactics could have driven the adoption lawyers. Treachery implies purpose. Purposeful or not, there’s a foul stench of treachery around the case that would exist without the Indian Child Welfare Act. The purpose of ICWA is to protect tribal cultures, not to give individual Indians a weapon in child custody cases. But without ICWA, this garden variety injustice to a GI father could never have attracted the resources to make a federal case of it, let alone a SCOTUS case.Get the Story:
Steve Russell: Baby Veronica and the Law of Race (Indian Country Today 4/28) Oral Argument Transcript:
Adoptive Couple v. Cherokee Nation (April 16, 2013) South Carolina Supreme Court Decision:
Adoptive Couple v. Cherokee Nation (July 26, 2012)
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