(Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts (R) walks with associate Justice Neil Gorsuch during his investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., June 15, 2017.
Posted on 06/26/2017 1:42:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The United States Supreme Court has reversed a lower court that upheld an Arkansas law that treated same-sex and opposite-sex married couples differently regarding the issuing of birth certificates.
(Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts (R) walks with associate Justice Neil Gorsuch during his investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., June 15, 2017.
Known as Pavan v. Smith, the case was centered on a state law that automatically listed an opposite sex spouse on a birth certificate even if they were not the biological parent. This was not done for same-sex couples.
In an unsigned order issued Monday, the high court ruled that the Arkansas law unjustly treated same-sex couples differently.
"... same-sex parents in Arkansas lack the same right as opposite-sex parents to be listed on a child's birth certificate, a document often used for important transactions like making medical decisions for a child or enrolling a child in school," read the opinion.
"In considering those challenges, we held the relevant state laws unconstitutional to the extent they treated same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex couples."
(Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)With his wife Marie Louise (L) looking on, U.S. Supreme Court nominee judge Neil Gorsuch testifies during a third day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2017.
The order came on the two-year anniversary of the landmark 5-4 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Supreme Court declared all state-level gay marriage bans unconstitutional. Monday's decision cited the case in justifying their ruling.
"Obergefell proscribes such disparate treatment. As we explained there, a State may not 'exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples'," continued the opinion, affirming its earlier decision.
"Indeed, in listing those terms and conditions — the 'rights, benefits, and responsibilities' to which same-sex couples, no less than opposite-sex couples, must have access — we expressly identified 'birth and death certificates.'"
In July 2015, one month after the Obergefell decision, a group of lesbian couples filed suit against Arkansas over the state's § 20-18-401, which dealt with birth registration.
According to the section, if a "mother was married at the time of either conception or birth or between conception and birth the name of the husband shall be entered on the certificate as the father of the child ..."
While the state law provided an exemption for the event of paternity being declared otherwise by a court, no exemptions were put in for same-sex couples.
Justice Neil Gorsuch authored a dissenting opinion to the order and was joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
In his dissent, Gorsuch argued that the Supreme Court erred because the birth certificate law served the purpose of tracking the biological origins of a person.
"Before the state supreme court, the State argued that rational reasons exist for a biology based birth registration regime, reasons that in no way offend Obergefell — like ensuring government officials can identify public health trends and helping individuals determine their biological lineage, citizenship, or susceptibility to genetic disorders," wrote Gorsuch.
"And it is very hard to see what is wrong with this conclusion for, just as the state court recognized, nothing in Obergefell indicates that a birth registration regime based on biology, one no doubt with many analogues across the country and throughout history, offends the Constitution."
Justice Neil Gorsuch authored a dissenting opinion to the order and was joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Reinforcements are on the way. I noticed that that pansy Roberts wimped out again. Hope whatever Obama has on that POS to blackmail him into these decisions becomes public with the investigations on Lynch, et al.
Another abomination against God and nature’s law
We still only have 3 justices that understand the Constitution.
At least 2 more are needed to save the Republic.
is an insult to the Constitution.
Well, I guess there really isn’t something called a birth certificate any longer.
These documents are no longer required to name the biological parents. It’s more like a party roster.
I pity people up the line trying to find out who their actual biological parents were.
For sure a group of people screwed up in their head should take precedence when it comes to feeling good about themselves vs the actual human being finding out who their actual blood relatives are.
Never mind medical/hereditary issues.
65 different genders are now “fulfilled”.
Genders to SCOTUS, you complete me...
To hell with the kids.
It’s none of the feds friggin’ business what’s on a marriage certificate. Marriage is strictly a personal and state issue, not a federal issue. The Constitution gives the feds no authority to interfere with marriage at all.
This is absolutely insanity. Regardless of whom is considered the child’s parents legally, the simple, biological fact of the matter is that the child can only be born of one man and one woman (and all the SJW squealing and wailing can’t change that). And the names of the man (the one whose sperm fertilized the egg) and the woman (the one who created that egg) are the ones that should be on the birth certificate, regardless of how the “married” couple came to have legal custody.
Roberts is compromised because he illegally adopted his Irish background children from Mexico. He skirted the rules, so now he sides with the left every time they threaten him.
Looks like Gorsuch was a good choice.
But we need at LEAST three more like him before we can even think about taking a rest.
Sounds like Keating Five McCain.
Sorry, I usually try to check my grammar before posting. Should have been "Regardless of whom are considered the child's parents..." as well, and maybe "who" rather than "whom", but I am admittedly a little fuzzy on the use of "whom" at times...
Wow, my post was a grammatical catastrophe!
A birth certificate lists the parents of the child at the time of birth. IT HAS NO BEARING ON GENETICS.
I know gay is icky to a lot of FReepers. Take gay out of the equation and realize that both adoptive parents and dads who do not actually know whose sperm created the child are on the birth certificates. The mother is on the BC when donated eggs are used. The father is on the BC when donated sperm is used. Same when the baby is born of a surrogate womb; the parents are on the BC. The guy whose wife cheated on him with his best friend is on the BC.
So don’t all jump to anti gay hysteria. The parents at the time of birth go on there. It isn’t a paternity test.
The replacement for the next SCOTUS justice needs to be as conservative, if not more so, than Gorsuch.
And let the Demonicrat scream. Maybe some of them will scream so hard they will vaporlock.
Of course, Roberts and Kennedy join in the continued erosion of Common Sense.
Roberts throws Christian preschools a green light to purchase playground materials from a state recycling program but denies newborns the right to know who their birth parents are.
Of course, some will argue that adopted, abandoned children are also kept from knowing their true birth parents. But the argument is specious because a newborn with two fathers or two mothers on their birth certificate can not know which if any parent is a birth parent. And the same-sex parents are not obliged to tell them.
The good news is Gorsuch went as hoped. Clearly we are 2 short.
This makes them legally and financially responsible.
They better not complain later about child support etc...
Dont leave out the egomaniacal anthony kennedy.
Roberts was finished the day he illegally adopted his kids. With that huge a skeleton, he was ripe to be blackmailed. He’s been a disappointment for years.
Such is the slippery slope the Court is already sliding down with increasing speed.
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