SC couple appeals custody case involving Oklahoma Native American girl to Supreme Court
By BRUCE SMITH, AP
CHARLESTON, S.C. – A court ruling sending a Native American girl back to Oklahoma from her adoptive South Carolina family has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state Supreme Court ruled that the 2-year-old should be returned to her biological father, a member of the Cherokee tribe.
But in a 142-page petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for the South Carolina couple say courts in a dozen states are divided on the interpretation of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
They want the high court to clarify whether a non-custodial parent can use the act to block an adoption undertaken legally by a non-Indian parent under state law.
A state Family Court judge awarded custody of the child to the biological father last year and she was taken to Oklahoma.