Supreme Courts Rules In Favor Of "Baby Veronica's" Adoptive Parents

The US Supreme Court refused take a case on Friday disputing the parental rights over a three-year-old girl known as "Baby Veronica" in court papers, The Christian Science Monitor reported.

The denial of the case from the Supreme Court results in the girl being brought back to her adoptive parents in South Carolina after being with her biological father in Oklahoma.

A family court in South Carolina finalized the adoption on Wednesday and approved a proposed transition procedure for Veronica that is intended to reduce any stress or trauma from being sent to a new family. Details of the plan are confidential.

However, South Carolina courts had initially ruled in favor of Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown. Brown is a member of the Cherokee Nation and his lawyers argued in court that under the Indian Child Welfare Act, his daughter could not be taken away. The act makes it difficult for non-Native Americans to adopt a child of Indian ancestry.

In late June, the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 that Brown could not use the act to block the adoption. The court noted that Brown had not provided financial assistance to Veronica's mother and had signed away his parental rights. It was only after he found out about Veronica's mother putting her up for adoption that he showed an interest.

Once the Supreme Court ruled on June 25, the case was sent down to the South Carolina Supreme Court which ruled in favor of the adoptive parents mid-July.

Veronica lived the first two years of her life with her adoptive parents, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, of Charleston. As a result of a family court ruling, she moved in with Brown and his parents in Oklahoma and spent a year and a half with them.

Both Veronica's grandparents and members of Cherokee nation have filed lawsuits.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Brown expressed his concern for the possible trauma his daughter will endure:

"I will not voluntarily let my child go through that, no parent would. I am her father and it is my job to protect her."