LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that a Lancaster County judge should have applied to a child custody case a federal law that seeks to prevent the removal of Native American children from their homes.

The high court’s ruling on Friday echoed the state Appeals Court ruling, which also said Judge Linda Porter had erred in deciding the Indian Child Welfare Act didn’t apply in the children’s case.

Porter had said the federal law didn’t apply because the children remained in their father’s home, despite being in the state’s custody. The case began in January 2013 when the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services took custody of the girls after their father’s girlfriend had slapped one of them.