Court Opinion

ID: 8027770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-09 02:50:00.682352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:36:52.404484
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE WEBER,
specially concurring:
I join in the holding of the majority opinion in view of the recent Choctaw holding of the United States Supreme Court. Although I have strong reservations about the majority’s analysis, and tend to join the dissent on the wardship theory, I conclude we must concede jurisdiction to the tribal court under Choctaw. I express two concerns.
First, I am shocked at the Tribe’s apparent disregard of the due process rights of the parent in the early stages of the controversy. The majority concludes that the child became a ward of the tribal court on May 30,1985. This was accomplished with virtually no recognition of the due process rights of the mother. The Tribe’s wardship appears to have been based on nothing more than its own stated claim. In Montana, any comparable restriction of parental rights can be done only with careful regard for the due process rights of the parents. Also shocking to me is the apparent ease with which the Tribe now argues against the desire of the mother, one of its own tribal members. It is ironic that the attorneys for the Tribe who have fought for many years for the protection of the interests of tribal members, now come all the way to Montana to argue so eloquently in direct opposition to this Indian mother. Who is left to represent the rights of the individual Indian mother when she is so abandoned by her Tribe?
Second, I am concerned with the effect of the Choctaw holding. In Choctaw, a father and mother went 200 miles off the reservation in order to give birth to twins, and promptly made adoption arrangements for the twins with a non-Indian couple. The Supreme Court concluded that the tribal court had exclusive jurisdiction to determine the custody of these children. Noting the policy furthered by the ICWA, which is in part to protect the interests of the Indian community in retaining its children within its society, the court concluded that tribal jurisdiction could not be defeated by the parents’ deliberate attempt to make a decision regarding their own children’s custody. This holding indicates the interests of the Tribe now are superior to the interests of the parents. The dissenting judges in Choctaw pointed out that it was questionable whether Congress intended to deprive Indian parents of their wishes in regard to the placement of their children. Parental rights are among the most significant rights granted to any human being. The Choctaw decision is incredible in light of its apparent elimination of certain parental rights in favor of tribal rights.