Attorney General Ken Paxton cares deeply about preventing discrimination in adoptions. Except for when he doesn’t. Paxton is putting the might of his office behind an effort to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act, arguing the 1978 federal law discriminates against non-Indians who wish to adopt Native American children. The law gives priority on placing such children with relatives, other members of their tribe or members of another tribe.
Paxton’s efforts betray a disappointing ignorance of not-too-distant U.S. history, when up to a third of Indian youth in some states were forcibly removed from their homes and adopted by non-Indian families, alienating these children from their culture and further eroding Native American tribes.