Two lawmakers who represent eight Indian tribes aren’t standing with tribal leaders who see a Goldwater Institute lawsuit challenging provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act as an attack on a law that rectified historic wrongs.

The former head of the state’s child safety agency said Monday it was Attorney General Mark Brnovich and not he who precipitated a February decision to stop allowing married gay couples to jointly adopt or become foster parents.

Ducey today (April 24) sidestepped questions about why DCS never informed him about its policy change regarding married same-sex couples fostering children and why he only learned about it from a Capitol Times article more than two months after the fact.

Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed legislation Monday which would have allowed county attorneys to refuse to help with adoptions, setting the stage for a legal fight over whether gays have the same right to assistance as heterosexuals.

Rep. Warde Nichols, a Republican from Gilbert, has introduced an adoption bill that would require the state to give preference to married couples.