Syllabus
Legislation that applies “evenhandedly” to state and private actors does not typically implicate the Tenth Amendment. Murphy, 584 U. S., at ___. Petitioners would distinguish the Court’s precedents so holding on the grounds that those cases addressed laws regulating a State’s commercial activity, while ICWA regulates a State’s “core sovereign function of protecting the health and safety of children within its borders.” Brief for Petitioner Texas 66. This argument is presumably directed at situations in which only the State can rescue a child from neglectful parents. But the State is not necessarily the only option for rescue, and §1912(d) applies to other types of proceedings too. Petitioners do not distinguish between these varied situations, much less isolate a domain in which only the State can act. If there is a core of involuntary proceedings committed exclusively to the sovereign, Texas neither identifies its contours nor explains what §1912(d) requires of a State in that context. Petitioners have therefore failed to show that the “active efforts” requirement commands the States to deploy their executive or legislative power to implement federal Indian policy. And as for petitioners’ challenges to other provisions of §1912—the notice requirement, expert witness requirement, and evidentiary standards—the Court doubts that requirements placed on a State as litigant implicate the Tenth Amendment. But regardless, these provisions, like §1912(d), apply to both private and state actors, so they too pose no anticommandeering problem. Pp. 18–23.
(b) Petitioners next challenge ICWA’s placement preferences, set forth in §1915. Petitioners assert that this provision orders state agencies to perform a “diligent search” for placements that satisfy ICWA’s hierarchy. Just as Congress cannot compel state officials to search databases to determine the lawfulness of gun sales, Printz, 521 U. S., at 902–904, petitioners argue, Congress cannot compel state officials to search for a federally preferred placement. As with §1912, petitioners have not shown that the “diligent search” requirement, which applies to both private and public parties, demands the use of state sovereign authority. Moreover, §1915 does not require anyone, much less the States, to search for alternative placements; instead, the burden is on the tribe or other objecting party to produce a higher-ranked placement. Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, 570 U. S. 637, 654. So, as it stands, petitioners assert an anticommandeering challenge to a provision that does not command state agencies to do anything.
