Adoptive couple vs Baby girl (take 2)

I had written about this Supreme Court case a few weeks ago.  The case involves the custody of little girl.

The mother's side:  The girl's mother, a Hispanic, already has other children.  She wanted to give her daughter up from adoption.  She met with and selected the adoptive parents who became very close.  In fact, the adoptive parents were in the delivery room with her and the adoptive father cut the umbilical cord.  Months before the baby's birth, the the mother texted the birth father, who agreed to hand her sole custody.  He never paid alimony.  He didn't go for the birth.  And, after the birth, he signed away his rights.  Then, when he realized that the baby was being given for adoption, he invoked his Cherokee heritage and demanded custody.  After two years of court battles, the baby was yanked from the adoptive parents and handed to a father she had never met.  The father is only 2% Cherokee and because of that, he got custody in a case where no other father could have got custody.\ 

The father's side:  He had dated the mother of his daughter on and off since they were in their teens.  He finally proposed to her and a few months later was overjoyed to discover she was pregnant.  However, soon after their relationship soured and his fiancee broke off the relationship, wouldn't return his calls and would not respond to his texts.  Then out of the blue she texted him one day asking him to sign over his rights.  She did so not just once but several times.  He had learned by this time that he was being deployed to Iraq and so he decided that its better the girl is with the mother and that they could patch up when he got back.  He texted back saying OK, under the impression that he was merely handing her the custody.  Six days before he was deployed, he gets served the papers for handing over his rights and after he signs the papers he discovers that he has not actually signed his rights to the mother but effectively assented to the adoption.  He's horrified.  He gets a lawyer and fights tooth and nail for his daughter.

What's at stake.  In the worst case for Indians, if being Indian is seen as a racial issue, then a ruling in this case could invalidate every Indian law on the books.

Here's a wonderful summary of the case.  A decision by the supreme court is expected later this month.