High Court Backs Native Adoption Law Giving Tribes Priority (1)

The US Supreme Court rejected a sweeping challenge to a 1978 law that gives preference to Native Americans in adopting and fostering American Indian children.

Voting 7-2, the court said Congress has broad authority over Native American affairs, rejecting contentions that the Indian Child Welfare Act exceeds Congress’ power and unconstitutionally intrudes on state authority.

“Congress’s power to legislate with respect to Indians is well established and broad,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the court.

The justices also said the challengers — Texas, three non-Native couples and the biological mother of an American Indian child – didn’t have legal ...