On June 15, the Supreme Court refused to address some of the toughest questions about the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), including the scope of Congress' power with regard to tribes and whether the Act's racial classifications violate the Equal Protection Clause. The Court may have saved itself from having to make yet another controversial decision this term, but its temporary punt ensures the case will be back before the justices in the future.
The ICWA governs foster and adoption proceedings for Indian children. It was enacted in response to a sad and shameful history, starting in the 1950s, of Native children being ripped from their homes and placed in boarding schools that sought to eradicate all traces of their culture. Later, after those schools were closed, states changed tactics and forcibly took the kids under the pretense of abuse and placed them in white households. The ICWA was passed to make sure that American Indian children would no longer be unjustifiably taken from their families.
