If a majority of the court’s nine justices agree with either of the first two arguments, legal scholars say, the outcome could send shockwaves through the legal foundation of tribal sovereignty. Elizabeth Hidalgo Reese, an assistant professor at Stanford Law School, wrote on Twitter that the court agreeing only with the third argument would hurt ICWA but wouldn’t have such a broad impact.

“Other parts of the law could stand but there would be a huge drop-off in enforcement,” Hidalgo Reese wrote. “This is the ‘best way to lose’ this case because its narrower and doesn’t take down the rest of Indian Law.”