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2 

HAALAND v. BRACKEEN 

Opinion of the Court 

in foster or adoptive homes.  But when the child is an In-
dian, a federal statute—the Indian Child Welfare Act—gov-
erns.  Among other things, this law requires a state court 
to place an Indian child with an Indian caretaker, if one is 
available.  That is so even if the child is already living with 
a  non-Indian  family  and  the  state  court  thinks  it  in  the 
child’s best interest to stay there.

Before  us,  a  birth  mother,  foster  and  adoptive  parents,
and the State of Texas challenge the Act on multiple consti-
tutional  grounds.  They  argue  that  it  exceeds  federal  au-
thority,  infringes  state  sovereignty,  and  discriminates  on 
the basis of race.  The United States, joined by several In-
dian Tribes, defends the law.  The issues are complicated—
so for the details, read on.  But the bottom line is that we 
reject all of petitioners’ challenges to the statute, some on 
the merits and others for lack of standing. 

I 
A 

In 1978, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act 
(ICWA) out of concern that “an alarmingly high percentage
of Indian families are broken up by the removal, often un-
warranted, of their children from them by nontribal public
and private agencies.”  92 Stat. 3069, 25 U. S. C. §1901(4). 
Congress  found  that  many  of  these  children  were  being 
“placed in non-Indian foster and adoptive homes and insti-
tutions,” and that the States had contributed to the problem
by “fail[ing] to recognize the essential tribal relations of In-
dian people and the cultural and social standards prevail-
ing  in  Indian  communities  and  families.”  §§1901(4),  (5).
This harmed not only Indian parents and children, but also
Indian tribes.  As Congress put it, “there is no resource that
is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of In-
dian tribes than their children.”  §1901(3).  Testifying be-
fore Congress, the Tribal Chief of the Mississippi Band of
Choctaw  Indians  was  blunter:  “Culturally,  the  chances  of