By Mary Jo Pitzl | The Republic
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a case challenging a federal law that requires Native American children removed from their parents to be placed with a Native family.
The court’s ruling comes in a case brought by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of several Arizona couples as well as children’s advocates standing up for Native American children living off-reservation.
The appeals court determined that since the four children at issue in the case have been adopted — in these cases by non-Native parents — the constitutional challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act is moot.
