Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl: Policing Authenticity, Implicit Racial Bias, and Continued Harm to American Indian Families

Abstract

In June 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, a case involving an American Indian child and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Despite the uncontested fact that Baby Veronica is indeed an “Indian child” as defined by both ICWA and the Cherokee Nation, the Supreme Court decision reveals deep, historical anxieties regarding race and political status as it summarizes Baby Veronica’s Indian status by means of a quantitative value of Cherokee blood. This article argues that as it imposes colonial notions of blood quantum on a tribal nation’s right to determine citizenship, SCOTUS uses law as a tool of formal social control when it dangerously distorts ICWA in order to police American Indian authenticity. In the process, it seriously threatens tribal sovereignty by creating a narrow class of protected Indian families.

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