Native American women, tribes, advocacy organizations, law professors, states and members of Congress urged the Fifth Circuit on Thursday and Friday to overturn a lower court’s ruling that the Indian Child Welfare Act is unconstitutional, ahead of a full circuit rehearing in January.
In an amicus brief, the Native American women, three California tribes, American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations said Congress had the power to enact ICWA under the Constitution and that tribes “have the right to self-determination, including the right to self-governance and cultural integrity. Those rights “prohibit assimilationist policies such as the removal of Indian children from Indian homes, which ICWA is designed to prevent,” they added.