The Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of a federal law intended to rectify past abuses of Native American children being removed from their homes and tribes, the justices announced Monday.
The court consolidated four cases about the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which prioritizes placement of Indian children with relatives, other Native Americans or a tribe. The act was intended to stop past practices in which hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes by adoption agencies and placed with White families or in group settings. Native Americans say the law is essential to them, and have pledged to defend it.