The biological father of a 3-year-old Cherokee Indian girl faces arrest in a custody dispute that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dusten Brown, who is a Cherokee and is currently training with the National Guard in Iowa, had been ordered to turn over his daughter, Veronica, to a South Carolina adoptive couple who had initially raised the girl.
An arrest warrant has been issued on a charge of custodial interference because has failed to do so.
The case goes back to 2009, when Veronica was born. Matt and Melanie Capobianco were present at her birth and brought her home, believing they could adopt her from her unmarried biological mother, Chrissy Maldonado.
Before Brown's National Guard unit went to Iraq, he had sent Maldonado a text message that said "i will just sign my rites (sic) away." He also signed paperwork surrendering his parental rights.
"Before I deployed, I thought I was just signing the papers to her, you know, custody rights," Brown told CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano last month. "I didn't think that I was signing, you know, giving up everything, you know, not wanting to have anything to do with my child. I mean that's my daughter."
When Brown found out about the adoption plans, he invoked a 1978 federal law - the Indian Child Welfare Act - that protects children of Native Americans from being separated from their families and tribes.
"They can't provide what my grandmother told me, and what I learned whenever I was growing up," Brown said. "They can't provide that."
A South Carolina court agreed and ordered custody of Veronica be given to Brown in 2011. She has lived with Brown and his wife in Oklahoma since then.
"She's full of energy," Brown said. "Always ready to do anything. Loves animals, loves mommy and daddy dearly."
But in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Indian Child Welfare Act did not apply in this case. Justice Samuel Alito wrote Brown "abandoned the Indian child before birth and never had custody of the child."
Saying yes in that text message and signing the paperwork before he left for Iraq "was one of the dumbest decisions that I've made," Brown said, but he insists he never abandoned his daughter.
The Supreme Court ordered the case back to the South Carolina court system. South Carolina Family Court Judge Daniel Martin finalized the Capobianco's adoption at the direction of the state supreme court earlier this month.
Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Amanda Clinton called the arrest warrant "morally reprehensible" and "legally questionable."
"The attorneys, the courts and the adoptive couple in this case were keenly aware of Dusten's [National Guard] commitment, but clearly chose to ignore it," Clinton said in a written statement. "This case is still not yet fully litigated. So to take these steps when there are pending legal actions in South Carolina, Oklahoma and Cherokee Nation courts is appalling."
According to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, Brown is expected to turn himself in to military authorities Sunday, with extradition proceedings to follow.
"Not only is the adoptive couple asking this child be ripped from her father while he is serving our country, they are also endangering his military career in the process," Clinton said. "This is outrageous conduct."
Meanwhile, Maldonado, the girl's biological mother, is pursuing a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that the Indian Child Welfare Act is unconstitutional on the basis that it uses race to determine custody in violation of equal-protection laws.
Several American Indian groups are pursuing a federal civil rights case, arguing for a hearing to determine if the adoption is in Veronica's best interest.
