Baby Veronica: Supreme Court rules for adoptive parents in wrenching case

Baby Veronica: Supreme Court rules for adoptive parents in wrenching case, When an Indian parent abandons an Indian child prior to birth and that child has never been in the Indian parent’s legal or physical custody, there is no ‘relationship’ that would be discontinued” and thus trigger ICWA protections, Alito wrote.

He added: “In such a situation, the breakup of the Indian family has long since occurred.”

In a brief dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said he felt the majority decision “needlessly demeans the rights of parenthood.”

“We do not inquire whether leaving a child with his parents is in the best interests of the child,” he said. “It sometimes is not; he would be better off raised by someone else.”

“But parents have their rights, no less than children do,” Scalia said. “This father wants to raise his daughter, and the statute amply protects his right to do so. There is no reason in law or policy to dilute that protection.”

Although the initial facts of the case paint the father as an uncaring, unsupportive person who was undeserving of parental rights, the underlying facts of the case present a more complex picture.

At the time the birth-mother learned she was expecting a child, she and the father were engaged to be married. After learning of the pregnancy, the father suggested they move their wedding date up so that the child would be born into a family with a married mother.

The birth-mother disagreed. She wanted immediate financial assistance, but refused to get married. He wanted to get married but refused to provide financial assistance until that happened. The relationship soured.

The mother then arranged for the adoption. She did not notify the father of the pending adoption until 12 days before the father, a soldier in the US Army, was set to deploy to Iraq for 11 months. (The paperwork for the adoption had been filed four months earlier in South Carolina.)

When the father learned of the adoption, he immediately objected and began efforts to block it. The father’s lawyers maintain that if the adoption had been disclosed properly to the father and to the state of Oklahoma, it would have never been approved over the objection of the father and the Cherokee Nation.

The key issue in the case was the father’s ability to apply the protections of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act.

The ICWA generally bars adoption of a Native-American child by non-Indians.

The law was passed in response to abusive child welfare practices in the 1970s by state officials who had removed 25 percent to 35 percent of Indian children from their parents’ homes and placed them for adoption. Ninety percent of the resulting foster parents were non-Indians.

The ICWA was designed to protect Indian culture and heritage and sustain the tribes by permitting Native-Americans to raise their own children.

Lawyers for the adoptive couple had argued that the biological father forfeited his parental rights. They noted that the birth mother was Hispanic, rather than Native American. The child was determined to be 3/256ths Cherokee.

In a statement after the decision, the adoptive couple, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, said they were grateful for the court’s ruling. “We are also hopeful that today’s decision will prevent the tragic disruption of other adoptions and prevent this heartbreak from happening to other families.”

Veronica’s birth mother, Christinna Maldanado, also issued a statement. “Today’s opinion makes clear that Veronica’s adoption should have been finalized long ago,” she said.

She added that Matt and Melanie were part of her life and that they had treated her like she was part of theirs. “I’m hopeful that we will all be reunited with Veronica very soon,” she said.

Joining Alito in the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Stephen Breyer. Joining Sotomayor's dissent were Justices Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan.

Baby Veronica: Supreme Court rules for adoptive parents in wrenching case 2013-06-26T02:14:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: My Videos Tube