The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the U.S. Constitution requires the state of Arkansas to list gay spouses on birth certificates.
The per curiam decision (PDF) granted cert and summarily overturned a ruling by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch dissented, in an opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Anthony Alito Jr.
State law in Arkansas generally requires a male spouse to be listed on the birth certificate when a woman gives birth. The Arkansas Supreme Court held the state law does not have to apply to similarly situated same-sex couples.
The case was brought by two married same-sex couples who conceived through artificial insemination. The Arkansas Department of Health had listed only the birth mother’s names on the birth certificates, relying on a state law that refers to the listing of husbands on the certificates.
The Supreme Court said its decision establishing a constitutional right to gay marriage, Obergefell v. Hodges, bars disparate treatment of same-sex couples in issuing birth certificates.
SCOTUS rules Arkansas must include names of gay spouses on birth certificates; Gorsuch dissents