Birth mother drops lawsuit over "Baby Veronica" adoption

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The biological mother of a girl at the center of a South Carolina adoption dispute has dropped a challenge to the law governing placement of Indian children.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports Thursday an attorney says Christy Maldonado wanted to end the lawsuit once Matt and Melanie Capobianco were reunited with Veronica.

Maldonado wanted invalidated parts of a law passed to reduce the number of Indian children being removed from their homes and placed with non-Indian families.

Veronica lived with the Capobiancos for two years but went to her biological father in Oklahoma in 2011, when South Carolina justices ruled the federal law gave Dusten Brown preference because of his Cherokee heritage.

After a lengthy dispute, Brown dropped custody efforts last year. Veronica returned to the Capobiancos.