Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, a Minor Child Under the Age of Fourteen Years, No. 12-399; U.S. Supreme Court; opinion by Alito, J.; concurrences by Thomas and Breyer, JJ.; dissents by Scalia and Sotomayor, JJ.; decided June 25, 2013. On certiorari to the Supreme Court of South Carolina.
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which establishes federal standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children, was enacted to address "the consequences … of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement, usually in non-Indian homes," Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30, 32.
