SCOTUS: Preserving Gay Rights

This week the Supreme Court denied cert for a case that sought to chip away at the rights gained for LGBTQ+ people in Obergefell v Hodges.  Box v Henderson sought to deny two lesbian mothers from each being named on their child’s birth certificate.  Many feared that this case would be used to begin the whittling away of LGBTQ+ rights now that the court has a 6-3 conservative majority. 

The case arose under Indiana law where the state court of appeals ordered that both mothers have the right to named on the birth certificate just as different sex parents do when a child is conceived through non-traditional means.  This right is part of the “constellation of benefits” referenced in Obergefell.  The denial of cert was a surprise to many, but most of all to those who are still unwilling to accept Oberefell as law and expected to try at change with the conservative court.

Arkansas had unsuccessfully challenged the same sex parents’ right to both be named on the birth certificate not long after Obergefell.  In Paven v. Smith the Supreme Court affirmed the parents’ right to both be named on the birth certificate.