Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett may be key to the fate of the four-decade-old Native American child welfare law under attack by Texas and others as discriminating on the basis of race.

The justices heard more than three hours of argument Wednesday in four consolidated cases involving the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), enacted in 1978 in response to the tragic history of government separation of thousands of Indian children from their families and tribes, and their subsequent placement into boarding schools and with non-Indian families. Congress stated that the act was critical to the preservation of tribal culture and sovereignty.