June 15, 2023
The Supreme Court today upheld the Constitutional validity of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), enacted in 1978 in response to a long, dark chapter in our history when Native families were systemically separated and children were placed with non-Native families or in boarding schools with the intent of stripping them of their family ties, language, and culture.
Children’s Rights celebrates the decision in Haaland v. Brackeen in solidarity with other advocates for the rights of children. Last year we were honored to join 30 other organizations in an amicus brief filed by the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) arguing that ICWA protects families from unwarranted state intervention in child welfare proceedings and preserves the constitutional right to family integrity.
You can learn more about the decision in NACC’s press release posted earlier today.