I have an article In this morning's Orange County Register about the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Brackeen case challenging its constitutionality. Federal, state, and tribal governments, as well as would-be adoptive parents have all asked the Court to take that case. I explain why it needs to--and why it needs to strike the Act down for violating a host of constitutional rules, and harming the very children it supposedly protects. Excerpt:
...if a white or black child is abused by a parent, the state can take her into protective custody as long as it first makes “reasonable efforts” to preserve the family unit. This is not required, however, if “aggravated circumstances” exist, such as molestation or a parent’s drug addiction. But ICWA requires “active efforts,” a term the law doesn’t define, but which is more demanding than “reasonable” efforts—and this is not excused by “aggravated circumstances.” That means state agencies must return Indian children to families they know are hurting them. The results are often tragic. Montana officials knew Anthony Renova was being abused, so they placed him in foster care for four of his five years of life. Had he been non-Indian, he might have been adopted into a safe, loving family. Instead, thanks to ICWA, the state was forced to return him to his abusive parents in February 2019. Nine months later, they beat him to death.
Read the rest...
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