Minnesota Couple Challenging Indian Adoption Laws

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An American Indian couple from the Twin Cities has filed a federal lawsuit to allow a white family to adopt their baby.

The child's parents are challenging a law that requires them to notify their tribes of an adoption. The tribe would then have a legal right to intervene and place the child with a Native American family.

The parents argue the notification requirement violates their constitutional right to due process and equal protection. The federal and state laws enacted in the 1970s and 1980s were aimed at keeping American Indian families together. Federal law bans discrimination in adoptions on the basis of race, but makes an exception for Indian children.

The Star Tribune says the lawsuit names the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the state attorney general and a commissioner with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.