I previously published this blog as a part of my solo practice.
Maintaining a tradition of issuing casers impacting the LGBTQ community on June 26th, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Pavan v. Smith, upholding the requirement outlined in Obergefell (the case that banned marriage discrimination based on sexual orientation/gender) that birth and death certificates reflect the same-sex spouse.
The decision was a per curiam opinion, which means it was a decision of the court. Per curiam opinions are rare, but this is the second time since Obergrefell that the court has issued a per curiam opinion with regard to marriage and families. (See U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Alabama’s Decision to Invalidate a Georgia Adoption for a discussion of the other case.
The Paven case involved two lesbian couples in Arkansas. Both couples were married in another state and then had children in Arkansas, using anonymous sperm donations. Both parents filled out the paperwork to have their spouse listed as the other parent on the birth certificate. In both cases the Arkansas Department of Health issued certificates bearing only the birth mother’s name. The Arkansas Department of Health relied on the Arkansas law that stated that if the mother was married at the time of either conception or birth that the name of her husband shall be entered on the certificate as the father of the child.
The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the gendered nature of the law as not violating Obergefell, asserting that the statute centered on the biological relationships, not on the marital relationships, and so it does not run afoul of Obergefell. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed finding that it denied marriage same-sex couples access to the “constellation of benefits that the Stat[e] ha[s] linked to marriage.”
The per curiam decision goes on to say that Obergefell proscribes such disparate treatment and the Obergefell explicitly referenced birth and death certificates. The court also noted that the statute is not about biology as married men are required to be on birth certificates of the children born of the marriage when ART is used. The decision of the court also noted that the adoption statute allows for birth certificates to be amended to reflect the adoptive, nonbiological parents, to be put on the birth certificat
Despite being a per curiam decision, Gorsuch, Thomas and Alito dissented. Gorsuch wrote, that he did not believe this case met the threshold of a per curiam decision because he did not think the issue was settled and stable, which are the types of case per curiam decisions are supposed to be reserved for.
This dissent repeated the state’s argument that the per curiam decision noted was false on its face – that biology was the reason for the gendered nature of the birth certificate law. The dissent comes up with the term, “biology based birth registration regime” perpetuating the facially false argument that the gendered nature of marriage and the birth certificate was related to biology. The per curiam opinion specifically discussed this, noting that when an opposite sex married couple uses ART to conceive the husband must be put on the birth certificate and that the adoption law places adopted parents on the birth certificate, so a birth certificate is clearly not about biological connections).
The dissent makes another argument that makes no sense when it stated, the “State agrees, the female spouse of the birth mother must be listed on birth certificates too.” This whole case is based on the refusal to allow same-sex married spouses on the birth certificate, so it is unclear how the Gorsuch could make this claim. The only way that this claim would be accurate, would be if the state conceded the same-sex spouse should be on the birth certificate, which would make the biological argument pointless.
The dissent does what the conservative agenda often tries to do -create a path to achieving its desired goal to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. The dissent essentially invites states to create “biology based birth registration regimes.” This is clearly an anti-LGBTQ stance, but it is more than that it’s a push towards the idea of biological imparity connected with parenting. The impact of this approach would impact far more people than the LGBTQ community. Assisted reproduction is widely used in the U.S. by opposite-sex married couples, single women, and same-sex couples. According to a February 2014 CNN article, 61,740 babies born using some form of assisted reproduction technology in 2012. A 2015 Huffington Post article notes that there is a guestimate that is 15 years old that between 30,000 and 60,000 children are conceived using sperm or egg donors (the article also criticizes the lack of tracking of this information).
It is also important to connect this case to the other recent per curiam adoption case that said Alabama could not invalidate a Georgia adoption. One of the judges at the Alabama Supreme Court rallied on about the idea that adoption is merely an administrative tool and doesn’t create real parentage and the state can revoke parentage on a whim without meeting the constitutional requirements for biological (“real”) parents. This is perhaps one of the reasons, Chief Justice Roberts, who is an adoptive parent, did not join in the dissent. Adoptive parents understand biology is not the only way people become parents and biology does not somehow make more of a parent.
What does this decision mean for parents using Assisted Reproduction Technology, especially same-sex parents?
This decision makes it clear that if a state has provision that requires a married spouse to be placed on a birth certificate, any effort to restrict this to opposite sex couples will be deemed unconstitutional. The per curiam nature of the decision is an effort to send a strong message – states cannot rely on gendered laws to limit the benefits and responsibilities allocated through marriage. Arguably this would also apply to parentage statutes, statutes that typically say that a child born of a marriage is presumed the legal child of both parents in the marriage.
Nevertheless, the dissent, the long-term hostility to the LGBTQ community and families, and the backlash to marriage equality make it imperative for same-sex couples (and arguably any parent conceiving through ART where they may not be the biological parent to their child – including birth mothers who use an egg donor) to affirm their parentage through a court order. It is clear that there will be continued challenges to parentage and there are still courts and justices open to arguments that same-sex parents aren’t real parents, and more than that, that nonbiological parents are not real parents.
There are two types of court orders, the one that many advocates believe provide the strongest protection are second parent adoptions (more commonly referred to as stepparent adoptions). This is a process where the nonbiological parent would adopt their child. Adoptions are recognized nationally and internationally.
The other option is an order affirming parentage (these have various names). It is an court order that affirms that that the intended parents are the legal parents and would be entitled to enforcement under Full Faith and Credit. States that have adopted a version of the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) may also have an ability to use the holding out provision for parents who were not married at the time of conception or birth and who have not done an adoption. Provided that the nonbiological parent has met the requirements of the state statute for the holding out provision, they could file a parentage action and affirm their parentage.
do a parentage confirmation than an adoption and it is relatively quick. You won’t get the same feel good ceremony many people experience when they do an adoption, it’s more like a somewhat administrative process to affirm your parentage.
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