Federal District Court In Texas Ruling Finds Indian Child Welfare Act Unconstitutional

On October 4, 2018, a federal court in Texas ruled in Brackeen v. Zinke that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is unconstitutional. At this time the ruling on the statute's constitutionality is limited only to the parties involved in the lawsuit. The ruling said that ICWA’s placement preferences and blanket classification of “Indian children” are not narrowly tailored to a compelling governmental interest and thus fail to survive strict scrutiny review. The court also set aside a regulation the federal government promulgated in 2016 pursuant to ICWA.

The ruling states that ICWA unconstitutionally segregates children on the . . .