Firm: Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Issue Area: Civil Rights
Gibson Dunn provided pro bono representation to the plaintiffs in Haaland v. Brackeen, who sought to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Congress passed ICWA in 1978 to stop the forced removal of Native American children from their families and tribal communities. Gibson Dunn's clients, Chad and Jennifer Brackeen, are an affluent white couple who claimed that ICWA discriminated against them for being white. Gibson Dunn has been accused of advocating cultural genocide for its role in the case.
In its briefs to the Supreme Court, Gibson Dunn argued that ICWA, a law enacted to stop the mass removal of Native children from their families, was "constitutionally indistinguishable from a federal ban on adoption of Indian children by non-Indian families." The firm also wrote that ICWA "deems children little more than chattel."