SCOTUS rules in favor of gay couples on birth certificates
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of same-sex couples, affirming that their marriages cannot be treated differently on birth certificates. Their vote was 6-3 with Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissenting.
The case concerns an Arkansas law about birth certificates that treats married opposite-sex couples differently from same-sex ones. A husband of a married woman is automatically listed as the father even if he is not the genetic parent. Same-sex spouses are not.
photo by Carrie Z. via pixabay
The case, Pavan v. Smith, No. 16-992, was brought by two married lesbian couples who had jointly planned their child’s conception by means of an anonymous sperm donor. State officials listed the biological mother on the children’s birth certificates and refused to list their partners, saying they were not entitled to a husband’s presumption of paternity.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled against the lesbian couple, saying that “it does not violate equal protection to acknowledge basic biological truths.”
Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 United States Supreme Court case, listed birth certificates among the “governmental rights, benefits, and responsibilities” that typically accompany marriage.
The plaintiffs told the Supreme Court that Arkansas’ approach has serious consequences.
“A child’s birth certificate affects parental decision-making authority in the medical and educational context,” their lawyers wrote. “For example, some Arkansas public schools allow only those parents named on the child’s birth certificate to receive educational information absent a court order.”
Lawyers for the state responded, saying that the presumption for fathers was justified because “in the overwhelming majority of cases, the mother’s husband is a marital child’s biological father,” adding that “parental rights flow from biology, not marriage.”
Newly appointed Justice Gorsuch is already under attack by LGBT activists and supporters and how the vote confirms that “Gorsuch will join the Court’s rightmost faction in matters relating to LGBTQ rights.”
