Steve Russell: White Power Day continues with ICWA ruling

It’s an ongoing trope in federal Indian control law that when the SCOTUS does us harm, it offers a rationale in terms of our own good. In Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, the Court purported to agree with the argument of the professional adoption industry that ICWA makes Indian children less adoptable.

It’s absolutely true that ICWA makes adoption more difficult outside the tribe. The tribe must be notified. The Indian parents cannot have their rights terminated without some attempt to repair the problems short of breaking up the family. The tribe can remove the case to tribal court.

In the case Indians came to know as Baby Veronica’s Case, two very big facts got short shrift in the SCOTUS opinion.

That fact that much of the trial delay could be attributed to the Cherokee father’s deployment in Iraq rated no mention, although the delay itself was noticed.