The Supreme Court added an emotional case to its docket Friday, agreeing to review a lower court's decision that federal law requires a couple to return the child they cared for since birth to her Native American father.
The South Carolina Supreme Court, saying it acted with a "heavy heart," agreed that Matt and Melanie Capobianco had to return Veronica, now 3, to her father, Dusten Brown, a registered member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. The court voted 3-2 that the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), passed to make it harder to remove children from Indian parents, trumps state law.
The Capobiancos "are ideal parents who have exhibited the ability to provide a loving family environment" for the girl, Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal wrote. But "because this case involves an Indian child, the ICWA applies and confers conclusive custodial preference to the Indian parent."