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| Photo
of Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, authorization provided by the Idaho Attorney General Office, 2019. |
Published January 17, 2019
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden
supports the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) by filing an amicus brief
after meeting with tribal legal counsel from Idaho tribes. On Thursday,
January 10, 2018, at the Idaho Statehouse,
legal counsel for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (Brandelle Whitworth),
Coeur d’Alene Tribe (Eric VanOrden), Nez Perce Tribe (Darren Williams),
and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho (William Barquin) met with Idaho Attorney
General Lawrence Wasden and his senior staff
to discuss the ICWA and the Brackeen v. Zinke case.
After the meeting and upon the request of his own staff, Mr. Wasden
joined with the Attorneys General of Alaska, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon,
Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin in the
bi-partisan group of states filing an amicus brief in defense of the
ICWA.
Just last month, the Fort Hall Business Council authorized the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to join the tribal amicus brief in Brackeen. More than 280 Indian tribes and 50 tribal organizations, including the Association on American Indian Affairs, the National
Congress of American Indians, and the National Indian Child Welfare have joined the tribal amicus brief.
The Brackeen case involves a challenge by individual plaintiffs
and the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Indiana to the constitutionality
of the ICWA and its regulations. In October 2018, a judge in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of
Texas ruled that much of the ICWA and its regulations were
unconstitutional. The case is currently on appeal to in the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
A press release by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a copy of the states’ amicus brief may be found at https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-leads-bipartisan-coalition-21-attorneys-general-brief-0.
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State of Idaho Attorney General Joins Indian Tribes in Defense of the Indian Child Welfare Actby Native News Online Staff |
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