I have an article in Reason today about the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the Supreme Court case that challenges the constitutionality of this deeply flawed statute. Excerpt:
Obviously, state child services systems also have many problems, and for the state to intervene in family relationships—particularly to take kids away from parents—is an extreme step, one that should be reserved for truly drastic situations. Indeed, the ICWA was supposedly adopted to redress the injuries that had been inflicted on Native families by overzealous state agencies that targeted Native parents out of a program of forced assimilation with white society. But the ICWA fails to resolve that problem: rather than improving care for at-risk kids, it worsens it by denying Native children the legal guarantees against abuse that kids of other races enjoy. Rather than ensuring that "Indian children" don't need foster care or adoption, it simply makes it harder for kids to obtain these protections when needed. In fact, by applying the "active efforts" rule in intra-family disputes, the ICWA even deprives Native parents of the right to protect their own children from harm....
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