In the case of Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield et al., 1988, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The dispute involved twin babies born to unmarried parents who were both members and residents on a reservation but had voluntarily left temporarily for their birth off-reservation. After birth, they were immediately given up for adoption to non-Indian parents without tribal court approval as required by Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The adoptive parents argued that since the twins were not physically present within reservation at time of adoption proceedings, ICWA did not apply. However, the Supreme Court held that domicile was determined based on parental residence and membership status rather than physical presence at time of proceeding or event such as birth or adoption; thus ICWA applied here because children's domicile was considered to be with tribe due to parent's membership and residency there despite temporary absence during childbirth.

In the dissenting opinion for Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield et al., Justice Stevens argued that the majority's interpretation of domicile was too rigid and not reflective of Congressional intent in passing the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). He contended that Congress intended to give tribes jurisdiction over child custody proceedings involving tribal children, but also recognized states' interests in such matters. The ICWA, he believed, aimed at balancing these competing interests by providing a flexible definition of domicile based on factual circumstances rather than legal formalities. In this case, where parents voluntarily left their reservation to give birth and immediately relinquished their parental rights under state law, Justice Stevens felt it inappropriate to automatically assign tribal jurisdiction based solely on parents’ official residence being on tribal land. This approach ignored actual living arrangements and undermined both state authority and parental autonomy without clear evidence that Congress intended such results.