High court asked to take Arkansas birth certificate case
LITTLE ROCK—Attorneys for two same-sex couples want the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Arkansas ruling preventing married gay couples from getting the names of both spouses on their children's birth certificates without a court order.
Attorneys for the couples and for the National Center for Lesbian Rights argue that a ruling late last year from the Arkansas Supreme Court undermines the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide. They say it could invite similar moves across the country against gay married couples.
"Allowing the decision below to stand would open the door for other courts to pursue a similarly blatant path of denying same-sex couples important marital rights and protections on equally specious grounds," the attorneys said in a court filing Monday.
The Arkansas Supreme Court in December sided with state officials who say Arkansas has a vested interest in listing parents on birth certificates. The state's highest court overturned a lower judge's ruling that struck down part of the state's birth certificate law that defines parents by gender.
Read more: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2017/feb/16/high-court-asked-take-arkansas-birth-certificate-case/661821/