Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

What happened

This was a child custody fight, not a land case. A South Carolina couple, both non-Indians, wanted to adopt a girl the Court calls Baby Girl. Her birth mother had chosen them. Her biological father, a member of the Cherokee Nation, had agreed to relinquish his parental rights, but later sought custody and said he did not consent to the adoption. He relied on the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which sets federal standards for state-court custody cases involving Indian children.

The South Carolina Family Court denied the adoption and awarded custody to the father. At the age of 27 months, Baby Girl was handed over to him. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed.

Assuming he was a "parent" under ICWA, the Court held that neither section 1912(f), which turns on a parent's "continued custody," nor section 1912(d), which requires efforts to prevent the "breakup of the Indian family," barred ending his rights, because he had never had custody. It also held that ICWA's adoption-placement preferences did not apply when no other party had formally sought to adopt.

In 2023, in Haaland v. Brackeen, the Court said it rejected all of the challenges to ICWA before it, some on the merits and others for lack of standing. Adoptive Couple remains a decision about how ICWA applies to a parent who never had custody.

Good to know. This is a child custody case, not a land case. The Court assumed, without deciding, that the father counted as a 'parent' under the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error