Pavan v. Smith

137 S.Ct. 2075 (2017)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Pavan (Ps) are two married same-sex couples who conceived children through anonymous sperm donation. Leigh and Jana Jacobs were married in Iowa in 2010, and Terrah and Marisa Pavan were married in New Hampshire in 2011. Leigh and Terrah each gave birth to a child in Arkansas in 2015. When it came time to secure birth certificates for the newborns, each couple filled out paperwork listing both spouses as parents-Leigh and Jana in one case, Terrah, and Marisa in the other. Both times, the Arkansas Department of Health (D) issued certificates bearing only the birth mother’s name. D claimed its birth certificate system was based on biology. But the statute says that if the mother was married at the time of either conception or birth,” the statute instructs that “the name of her husband shall be entered on the certificate as the father of the child.” There are some limited exceptions to the latter rule-for example, another man may appear on the birth certificate if the “mother” and “husband” and “putative father” all file affidavits vouching for the putative father’s paternity. The requirement that a married woman’s husband appear on her child’s birth certificate applies in cases where the couple conceived by means of artificial insemination with the help of an anonymous sperm donor. Ps sued D seeking a declaration that the State’s birth-certificate law violates the Constitution. The trial court agreed, but the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed that judgment, concluding that the statute centers on the relationship of the biological mother and the biological father to the child, not on the marital relationship of husband and wife,” and so it “does not run afoul of Obergefell.” The Supreme Court granted certiorari.