The United States federal government and 19 state attorneys general from Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin have joined a broad coalition who filed amicus briefs with the United States Supreme Court supporting the rights of Native American father Dusten Brown and his daughter, Veronica, to remain together as a family. They are calling for the nation’s highest court to uphold a previous South Carolina Supreme Court decision regarding “The well-being of Veronica, the Brown family, and the importance of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).”
“The broad base of support in this case is historic. In the history of the work of the Tribal Supreme Court Project, no Indian law case has generated more of a unified message to the Supreme Court about Indian law,” said Richard Guest, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), noting the outpouring of interest and support for Veronica, the Brown family, and ICWA.
The ICWA is designed to protect American Indian families from being separated, and has been used to“trump” a South Carolina law in a December 30th appellate court ruling. In accordance with South Carolina law, “a father is stripped of his paternity rights when he has not provided pre-birth support or taken steps to be a father shortly after birth.”
As a result, Brown, the biological father of the 2-year old Cherokee girl, who was adopted by non-native couple Matt and Melanie Capobianco, took custody of her on December 30, 2012, triggering continued legal battles between both sets of parents over her legal guardianship, culminating in the case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, to be heard by the Supreme Court on April 16, 2013.
The couple is seeking a review of a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling and attempting to force Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation, to give his daughter Veronica up for adoption. To date, Mr. Brown, who is now raising Veronica at their home in Oklahoma, has prevailed in every court that has considered this matter, including the South Carolina Family Court and the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Conflicting media reports detail the adoption process. According to Jessica Munday, a spokeswoman for the Capobiancos, the couple legally adopted Veronica at birth through an open adoption. "Matt cut the umbilical cord, and they were the first people to hold her," she told Reuters several months ago.
However, CNN reported that Veronica remained with her birth mother for the first few months of her life. In 2009, Veronica's biological mother and father signed a waiver agreeing to put the infant up for adoption. According to Brown's attorney, Shannon Jones, Brown signed the legal document, but did not fully understand it. Shortly after her birth, Brown, a U.S. Army solider not married to the birth mother, deployed for one year, and the baby was sent to the home of Matt and Melanie Capobianco. Four months after Veronica's birth, Brown took legal action, seeking custody of his daughter.
"My client has been fighting for custody of his daughter since shortly after her birth," Shannon Jones
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