Provided
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The guardian ad litem for a 3-year-old little girl caught in the
middle of a custody battle has filed a brief to the United States
Supreme Court in support of the toddler's adoptive parents, asking the
high court to hear the case. The brief was filed by
Paul Clement of Washington, DC and Thomas Lowndes of Charleston, SC.
Clement served as the U.S. Solicitor General from 2005-2008 and has
argued more than 60 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Lowndes has
practiced adoption law for more than 40 years and is a
founding member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.
The brief states the child's guardian, "exhaustively considered the child's best interests
and concluded that they clearly would be served by allowing her adoptive parents to retain custody."
It
continues by stating that under the South Carolina Supreme Court's
interpretation of the
Indian Child Welfare Act, the child's best interests were overridden by
a federal law. Clements and Lowndes ask the Supreme Court to determine
"whether the Indian Child Welfare Act operates to block adoption
proceedings voluntarily initiated by a non-Indian
mother who has sole custody of her child due to the Indian father's
failure to establish a legal parent-child relationship with the child
under state law."
Matt
and Melanie Capobianco of Charleston, SC began the process of adopting
Veronica at birth
in September 2009. After caring for her for more than two years, they
lost custody to the toddler's biological father in Dec. 2011. On October
1, they filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of
regaining custody of their child.
Just
days after Christmas, the couple was ordered by a South Carolina court
to hand over Veronica
to her biological father, whom the child had never met. Dusten Brown,
the child's birth father, gained custody based on the lower court's
interpretation of a federal law known as the Indian Child Welfare Act.
He is a member of the Cherokee Nation.
The Capobiancos are represented in the Supreme Court by Lisa Blatt of Washington, D.C.,
and Mark Fiddler of Minneapolis, Minn.
