The American Bar Association (ABA) is the largest voluntary association of lawyers and law students in the world. The Native American Concerns Committee focuses on educating and informing legal professionals, elected officials and the judiciary on federal Indian Law and Policy, as well as increasing the presence of American Indian and Alaska Native attorneys within the ABA. The Native American Concerns Committee is planning to sponsor a 90-minute webinar on November 29th between 1:30-3 pm ET to discuss the Brackeen v. Haaland case currently before the Supreme Court of the United States, with a particular emphasis on the outcome of the Supreme Court’s November 9, 2022 Oral Argument in the case. The panel is titled “Decoding Brackeen: The Latest in the ICWA Saga.”
The panel will consistent of Erin Dougherty Lynch from Native American Rights Fund (NARF); Paul Spruhan, Assistant Attorney General, Navajo Nation Department of Justice; and Prudence Beidler Carr, Director of the ABA’s Center on Children and the Law. Navajo Nation is a Tribal Defendant in the case before the Supreme Court. Ms. Dougherty Lynch was Counsel of Record on the Amicus Curiae Brief of 497 Indian Tribes and 62 Tribal and Indian Organizations. The ABA’s Native American Concerns Committee and the ABA Center on Children and the Law collaborated with Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP on an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the Federal Government and Intervening Tribes filed on behalf of the ABA. Suzanne Garcia, Child Welfare Legal Specialist at the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, will be moderating the panel.
