In March, Matthew posted the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision rejecting an equal protection challenge to ICWA for lack of standing. The foster parents have now asked SCOTUS to review that decision. On August 26, the Minnesota AG, Red Lake Nation, the children’s guardian ad litem, the mother, and Faribault-Martin County Human Services filed their brief in opposition.
The petitioners ask the Court to decide the equal protection question that the Court didn’t reach in Brackeen, arguing that ICWA and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act impose race-based placement preferences. They also ask the Court to review a First Amendment claim that denying intervention because the foster parents raised a constitutional challenge was itself unconstitutional.
The brief in opposition identifies substantial obstacles to review that make the case a poor vehicle for resolving the equal protection issue left unresolved in Brackeen while also separately arguing that the equal protection claim should fail on the merits since ICWA/MIPFA use political rather than racial classifications under Morton v. Mancari. It also defends the intervention denial as constitutional.
Turtle Talk 