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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has denied a plea from the Cherokee father of the girl at the center of a drawn-out custody fight to step back into the case.
The court issued a brief order Friday turning away a request from Dusten Brown who is fighting the adoption of his 3-year-old daughter by a South Carolina couple. Brown cited a 1978 law to keep Indian children from being placed with non-Indian adoptive or foster parents.
The justices did not comment on their action, although Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor noted that they would have granted Brown's request.
A state judge on Wednesday finalized the South Carolina couple's adoption of 3-year-old Veronica. The Supreme Court ruled in June that South Carolina courts should determine the girl's placement.
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