The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday a case alleging that South Dakota officials were violating the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The Supreme Court didn't give a reason it declined to hear the case that began in 2013, when the Oglala and Rosebud Sioux Tribes and three parents in Pennington County brought a class action lawsuit against state Department of Social Services and Pennington County officials.

The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the tribes and parents, alleged that Native American parents weren't receiving fair preliminary hearings when their children were removed from the home, including that parents couldn't have an attorney present and couldn't see documents given to the court by DSS.

Parents weren't told why their children were removed during initial hearings that lasted for as little as 60 seconds — and the state won 100 percent of the hearings in a four-year period, causing more than 800 Native American children to be removed from their homes, according to the ACLU. The parents also didn't have an opportunity later to challenge the adequacy of the hearing, according to the ACLU.

Stephen Pevar, the lead ACLU attorney on the case, said they were "very disappointed" by the Supreme Court's decision. However, the second part of the case is still active in federal court that alleges DSS failed to adequately train and supervise staff.

The defendants in the case have changed over the year as people have left employment with the state or retired. Laura Ringling, director of DSS' legal services, declined to comment due to the pending litigation.

On the issue central to the ACLU's petition to the Supreme Court, the District Court ruled that the preliminary hearings violated due process requirements. However, a federal Appeals Court overturned that ruling and instead ruled that the case shouldn't be heard in federal court. In its petition to the Supreme Court, the ACLU was asking the justices to determine whether the Appeals Court interpreted case law correctly in saying the District Court should have abstained.

"The good news, and it's a lot of good news, is that the defendants have already made all of the changes that the District Court ordered and we don't think they'll ever go back to their old ways," Pevar said. "What we lost is the opportunity to have a federal court order requiring that they keep those changes."

The ACLU learned during the case's discovery process that DSS removed more than 800 Native American children from their homes between 2010 and 2014 and most were placed with non-Native American homes. Pevar said they hope the changes made will "substantially reduce" that number and, at the least, provide parents and children with their constitutional rights during court proceedings.

When a child is removed from the home, parents can have a preliminary hearing within 48 hours. The changes required by the District Court's ruling were: parents have a right to see the notice describing why DSS isn't returning the child to the home, parents have a right to present evidence at the preliminary hearing, parents have a right to an attorney and that attorney can cross-examine the DSS welfare worker, and parents can see documents given to the court by DSS welfare workers.

"The state court was being handed documents by the welfare department without showing them to the parents and was then making a decision based on this secret evidence," Pevar said.