Supreme Court Decision Means Crimes Against Native American Children Continue

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a complicated 133-page opinion turning away challenges to the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law that deprives Native American children of the legal protections against abuse and neglect that children of other races enjoy.

The case was brought by a coalition of parents and state governments, which argued that the act violates the Constitution’s rule against race-based legislation and intrudes into matters entrusted to state officials rather than to Congress. But the justices held, 7-2, that neither the adults who seek to help at-risk “Indian children” nor the states that are legally obligated to protect them from harm have legal standing to challenge that law.

The ruling marks just the latest injustice inflicted on Native Americans by the federal government — done, as usual, in the name of “helping” them.

Read the rest of the op-ed at Washington Times.

Timothy Sandefur is the Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute.