Arkansas Judge Strikes Part of Birth Certificate Law

An Arkansas judge on Tuesday struck down part of a state law that barred same-sex couples from being listed on their children’s birth certificates, ordering government officials to immediately issue amended certificates to the three plaintiff couples.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge asked justices Wednesday to stay Fox’s ruling, saying it could have unintended consequences.

Read Thursday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox late Tuesday afternoon declared parts of the state’s birth certificate law unconstitutional since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide. “Even though I filled all the paperwork out when we were at the hospital, and then it still came back with just Terrah on it”.

Fox had previously ruled more specifically about three married lesbian couples, but extended his ruling to be more general.

Rutledge’s office asked the state Supreme Court to stay Fox’s ruling and said it didn’t plan on challenging his decision regarding the three couples.

Cheryl Maples, the attorney representing the couples, said in instances where heterosexual couples use fertility treatments that include sperm donations, the same requirements are not applied.

The amended certificates were issued to couples who sued the state over the issue and won.

Tracee Gardner-Glaze and her wife, Jennifer Gardner-Glaze, took their infant son to an Arkansas Department of Health office in Little Rock on Wednesday morning with what they thought would be a simple request: that they both be listed as parents on Jackson’s birth certificate.

“Without these provisions (or some variation), there is potentially no statutory authority for ADH to list any person as a parent on an original birth certificate of a child born in Arkansas”, the petition argues.

Mirivel did not believe any hospitals in Arkansas had reported same-sex parents to the state for birth registrations prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, she said.

“As much as I would like to announce from the bench exactly what my ruling is, because I don’t know exactly what my ruling is I’m not going to announce that today”.

“They had over a year to put together their policies, procedures and rules and get the Legislature to help”, she said.