WA lawmaker hails tribes' victory in SCOTUS adoption ruling

One state lawmaker says he has a lot to celebrate with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. This week the high court upheld a law aimed at keeping Native American adoptees within their tribes.

WA Rep. Chris Stearns (D-Auburn) described his initial reaction to the ruling as “unbridled joy, coupled with incredible relief.”

He said he’d feared that the U.S. Supreme Court would “gut” the law.

“It would have been devastating,” Stearns said. “Because the Act was created to stop something which was destroying our existence.”

Stearns has a strong connection to the Indian Child Welfare Act. He’s a member of the Navajo nation who was adopted by white parents, before the law gave tribes more power to prevent those separations. Before Congress passed the law in 1978, the Association on American Indian Affairs found that roughly one-third of Native children were being separated from their families.

Stearns calls the court’s decision a victory for tribes, and Native children. He said, “It means that their chances of growing up in their own tribe with their own families, with their own culture – that stays intact.”

Stearns said that as a lawyer, he was glad to see Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, highlight the law’s statement that “there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their children.”

And as a state House representative, Stearns said he’s relieved that the state’s own Indian Children Welfare Act also remains protected by this ruling. The Seattle Times reports that all 29 of Washington’s federally recognized tribes submitted briefs in support of the law.