Federal judge in Texas strikes down Indian Child Welfare Act

A federal judge in Texas has struck down the Indian Child Welfare Act, a decades-old federal law aimed at keeping Native American families together.

Backed by the state of Texas, Chad and Jennifer Brackeen — a non-Native Americancouple with two biological children — sued last October for the right to adopt a Native American toddler they had fostered for more than a year. A state court had denied their adoption petition; the federal law gives adoption placement preference to biological family members of Native American children, other members of the child’s tribe, or other Native American families.

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