FINAL Release – ICWA Again Survives Challenge by Fringe Group

The California Tribal Families Coalition, a coalition of tribes and tribal leaders, this week applauded the recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss an ill-conceived challenge against the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) arising from claims in Arizona by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative fringe anti-ICWA group.

The Aug. 6 dismissal marks the end of the latest in a series of cases brought by the group against ICWA as part of a years-long, systematic and disturbing effort to undermine the 40-year-old federal statute that protects Indian children. To date, the Goldwater Institute has failed in its every attempt to upend ICWA.

Despite the encouraging dismissal, the Sacramento-based California Tribal Families Coalition (CTFC) also warned of additional, pending attacks that seek to unwind ICWA and the decades of critical legal protections it has provided against separating tribal children from their families and tribal communities.

This release is discussing the Goldwater litigation, which was the first major attempt to get ICWA declared unconstitutional. Both Navajo Nation and the Gila River Indian Community intervened in this case involving tribal children.

Since 2015, there have been nine federal lawsuits attacking ICWA directly on constitutional groups. There is on-going litigation directly attacking ICWA and tribal court jurisdiction in the Eighth Circuit and the Northern District of Texas.