US Supreme Court denies review of Arizona child welfare case

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied review of an Arizona case challenging a law that gives preference to American Indians in adoptions of Native children.

The order last week leaves in place a lower court ruling that dismissed a complaint from a Phoenix-based, right-leaning think tank.

The Goldwater Institute sought to keep two children with ties to the Gila River and Navajo tribes from being removed from their non-Native foster parents.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the case was moot because the children had been adopted.

The 9th Circuit didn’t rule on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

That question is before a federal appeals court in Louisiana in a separate case out of Texas that represents the most significant challenge to the 40-year-old law.