Page:Haaland v. Brackeen.pdf/3

Syllabus

Held:

1. The Court declines to disturb the Fifth Circuit’s conclusion that ICWA is consistent with Congress’s Article I authority. Pp. 10–17.

(a) The Court has characterized Congress’s power to legislate with respect to the Indian tribes as “plenary and exclusive,” United States v. Lara, 541 U. S. 193, 200, superseding both tribal and state authority, Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U. S. 49, 56. The Court has traced that power to multiple sources. First, the Indian Commerce Clause authorizes Congress “[t]o regulate Commerce … with the Indian Tribes,” U. S. Const., Art. I, §8, cl. 3, and the Court has interpreted the Indian Commerce Clause to reach not only trade, but also certain “Indian affairs,” Cotton Petroleum Corp. v. New Mexico, 490 U. S. 163, 192. The Treaty Clause provides a second source of power. The treaty power “does not literally authorize Congress to act legislatively,” since it is housed in Article II, but “treaties made pursuant to that power can authorize Congress to deal with ‘matters’ with which otherwise ‘Congress could not deal.’ ” Lara, 541 U. S., at 201. Also, principles inherent in the Constitution’s structure may empower Congress to act in the field of Indian affairs. See Morton v. Mancari, 417 U. S. 535, 551–552. Finally, the “trust relationship between the United States and the Indian people” informs the exercise of legislative power. United States v. Mitchell, 463 U. S. 206, 225–226. In sum, Congress’s power to legislate with respect to Indians is well established and broad, but it is not unbounded. It is plenary within its sphere, but even a sizeable sphere has borders. Pp. 10–14.

(b) Petitioners contend that ICWA impermissibly treads on the States’ traditional authority over family law. But when Congress validly legislates pursuant to its Article I powers, the Court “has not hesitated” to find conflicting state family law preempted, “[n]otwithstanding the limited application of federal law in the field of domestic relations generally.” Ridgway v. Ridgway, 454 U. S. 46, 54. And the Court has recognized Congress’s power to displace the jurisdiction of state courts in adoption proceedings involving Indian children. Fisher v. District Court of Sixteenth Judicial Dist. of Mont., 424 U. S. 382, 390 (per curiam). Pp. 14–15.

(c) Petitioners contend that no source of congressional authority authorizes Congress to regulate custody proceedings for Indian children. They suggest that the Indian Commerce Clause, for example, authorizes Congress to legislate only with respect to Indian tribes as government entities, not Indians as individuals. But this Court’s holding more than a century ago that “commerce with the Indian tribes, means commerce with the individuals composing those tribes,” United States v. Holliday, 3 Wall. 407, 417, renders that argument a dead end.