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Rh Carolina v. Baker, for example, we held that a generally applicable law regulating unregistered bonds did not commandeer the States; rather, it required States “wishing to engage in certain activity [to] take administrative and sometimes legislative action to comply with federal standards regulating that activity.” 485 U. S. 505, 514–515 (1988). We reached a similar conclusion in Reno v. Condon, which dealt with a statute prohibiting state motor vehicle departments (DMVs) from selling a driver’s personal information without the driver’s consent. 528 U. S. 141, 143–144 (2000). The law regulated not only the state DMVs, but also private parties who had already purchased this information and sought to resell it. Id., at 146. Applying Baker, we concluded that the Act did not “require the States in their sovereign capacity to regulate their own citizens,” “enact any laws or regulations,” or “assist in the enforcement of federal statutes regulating private individuals.” 528 U. S., at 150–151. Instead, it permissibly “regulate[d] the States as the owners of data bases.” Id., at 151.

Petitioners argue that Baker and Condon are distinguishable because they addressed laws regulating a State’s commercial activity, while ICWA regulates a State’s “core sovereign function of protecting the health and safety of children within its borders.” Brief for Petitioner Texas 66. A State can stop selling bonds or a driver’s personal information, petitioners say, but it cannot withdraw from the area of child welfare—protecting children is the business of government, even if it is work in which private parties share. Nor, of course, could Texas avoid ICWA by excluding only Indian children from social services. Because States cannot exit the field, they are hostage to ICWA, which requires them to implement Congress’s regulatory program for the care of Indian children and families. Id., at 64–65; Reply Brief for Texas 27.

This argument is presumably directed at situations in