Court: Arkansas must list gay spouses on birth certificates
By John Lyon / Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas cannot refuse to list both spouses on the birth certificates of the children of same-sex couples, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.
In an unsigned opinion, the court sided with two lesbian couples who sued for the right to have both spouses’ names listed on their children’s birth certificates without a court order. Three justices dissented.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled in the couples’ favor in December 2015, but a year later the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed his ruling. Fox said the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2015 decision that made gay marriage legal nationwide extended to same-sex couples all the marriage rights that apply to opposite-sex couples, but the state Supreme Court said birth certificates were not mentioned in that decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that Arkansas must begin treating same-sex couples the same as it treats opposite-sex couples regarding birth certificates. The state has routinely listed a women’s husband as a parent on birth certificates, whether or not the husband is the biological father, but has declined to list same-sex spouses as parents.
Arkansas Department of Health spokeswoman Meg Mirivel said Monday the department will change its policy when it receives an order from the Arkansas Supreme Court.