legislative history

Law Review Articles Relevant to the Baby Veronica Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

We thought it would be helpful to make available a few useful law review articles that parse through the issues raised in the Baby Veronica case.

Indian Child Welfare Act: generally and legislative history

B.J. Jones, The Indian Child Welfare Act: In Search of a Federal Forum to Vindicate the Rights of Indian Tribes and Children against the Vagaries of State Courts, 73 N.D. L. Rev. 395 (1997) (PDF)

Patrice Kunesh-Hartman, The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978: Protecting Essential Tribal Interests, 60 U. Colo. L. Rev. 131 (1989) (PDF)

Existing Indian Family Exception

Barbara Atwood, Flashpoints Under the Indian Child Welfare Act: Toward a New Understanding of State Court Resistance, 51 Emory L.J. 587 (2002) (PDF)

Christine Metteer, The Existing Indian Family Exception: An Impediment to the Trust Responsibility to Preserve Tribal Existence and Culture as Manifested in the Indian Child Welfare Act, 30 Loy. L. A. L. Rev. 647 (1997) (PDF)

ICWA Constitutionality

Matthew L.M. Fletcher, ICWA and the Commerce Clause, in The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30: Facing to the Future (2009) (PDF)

 

 

Fort and Fletcher on the Indian Child Welfare Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Kathryn E. Fort has posted her paper, “The Cherokee Conundrum: California Courts and the Indian Child Welfare Act,” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This article was prepared for presentation at the American Indian Identity Conference held at Michigan State University, October 16-17, 2008. After classifying a year of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) cases in state courts, it became apparent that California had both the highest number of ICWA cases and that most of these cases were because of noncompliance with the notice provision of ICWA. In addition, it became clear that the majority of California cases involved parents claiming Cherokee affiliation. This article concludes there could be many reasons for this, including an informal exercise of the Existing Indian Family doctrine at the social worker level.

And Matthew Fletcher posted “The Indian Child Welfare Act: A Survey of the Legislative History” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This paper is prepared for the University of Michigan Law School Native American Law Students Association’s annual Indian Law Day, April 10, 2009. The materials in this paper derive from an early draft of an amicus brief filed by the American Indian Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan in the Michigan Supreme Court case, In re Lee. The paper focuses on the legislative history of the Indian Child Welfare Act, with particular emphasis on Michigan.