72 Am. U. L. Rev. 1673 (2023).

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Abstract

From 2013 to 2023, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was challenged in the courts more than the Affordable Care Act. This Article lays out the history of the fight over ICWA from Baby Girl to Haaland, from my perspective as a clinical professor who has been involved with every major ICWA case since 2013, as well as my observations about why ICWA was so vulnerable to an organized litigation attack despite continued bipartisan and widespread support of the law.

* Director of Clinics, and Director of Indian Law Clinic, Michigan State University College of Law. J.D., Michigan State University College of Law, 2005. B.A., Hollins University, 1999. The author thanks to Tom Murphy, Neoshia Roemer, and Lauren van Schilfgaarde for their review and comments on an early draft of this article. She also gives a very special thanks to the American University Law Review students for their exceptional work on this article.