SC Supreme Court to hear case involving Indian Child Welfare Act

By: Haley Hernandez | WCBD
Published: January 17, 2012

Matt and Melanie Capobianco were court ordered to give their adopted daughter, Veronica, to her biological father on New Year’s Eve.

“I didn't feel like we had enough time for her to be not afraid,” Melanie Capobianco said on the night of the transition.

A judge ruled because of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law that's supposed to keep Native American children with the Native American culture, Veronica had to move to Oklahoma with her birth father, Dusten Brown, who is part of the Cherokee Nation.

Stephanie Brinkley is a Charleston attorney who does not represent either family, she said when the Capobiancos and Brown go before the state, the court will likely look to neighboring states for assistance.

“This is going to be a case of first impression in South Carolina, in other words it's not been decided before,” she said. “My research has shown that there's actually something out there called the Existing Indian Family Doctrine.”

The doctrine states that the Indian Child Welfare Act only applies to existing families.

“When you have a situation where the child was not part of an existing Indian family because an adoption or placement began right after birth, then the Indian Child Welfare Act doesn't apply,” Brinkley said.

The Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare is a non-profit organization. Director, Lisa Morris said this is just one of many cases involving this law.

“We see this all the time, theres a family in Texas that has a child less than 2%, theres a family in Kansas that had a child that's less than 1%, we see all the time, particularly with the Cherokee Tribe,” Morris said.

More than 17,000 people have signed a petition online asking lawmakers to revisit the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. For more details or to view the petition, go to saveveronica.org.