The Supreme Court made the right decision in Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl case on Tuesday when a girl, Veronica, who had been adopted did not have to be turned over to her birth father.
Her birth father is a Native American and had raised the child for the last 18 months.
The adoptive parents had raised the girl for 27 months. The birth parents, including the father, a Native American, had terminated parental rights.
The Capobiancos, the adoptive parents, were ordered by the South Carolina Supreme Court in 2011 to return the girl to the Native American father who had changed his mind and wanted the child back.
The definition of terminated means finished.
So why the back peddling by lower courts?
She is 3/256 percent Native American.
Congress passed a  1978 law to discourage adoptions outside Native American tribes. At the time, Indian children were removed from their families and tribes to place them in foster care with non-Indian families. This law rightfully corrected a wrong.
However, it was an injustice to return the girl to her birth father. The job of the courts is to interpret the law, but if the law is no longer needed and does a wrong at a personal level, then it is time to dismiss it.
So, the wisdom of the Supreme Court ruled with this decision.
They decided the law does not apply. Justice Alito said in the majority opinion, that “the parent abandoned the Indian child before birth and never had custody of the child.”
The girl never should have been removed from her adoptive parents after 27 months and an injustice was done to her on a personal level.
Karen La Pierre