ARKANSAS RESUMES ISSUING CERTIFICATES

ARK.» Arkansas’ governor LITTLE ROCK, ordered health officials on Friday to treat married lesbian and heterosexual couples the same when listing the parents on a birth certificate, in an effort to comply with a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state’s birth certificate law was discriminatory.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s directive came hours after a judge blocked the state from issuing any birth certificates until it complied with the June ruling. Arkansas stopped issuing and amending birth certificates for about two hours Friday after the injunction by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Fox’s 2015 ruling striking down part of a birth certificate law defining parents by gender. That overturned an Arkansas Supreme Court decision. The state Supreme Court ordered Fox in October to come up with a way for the state to comply with the U.S. high court’s decision.

The law required the name of the husband to appear on the birth certificate when a married woman gave birth, regardless of whether he was the biological father. But married lesbian couples had to get a court order to have both spouses listed. The three couples who sued the state were allowed to amend their children’s birth certificates in 2015 under a ruling issued by Fox.

Hutchinson’s order said the department must list the spouse of the woman who gives birth, regardless of the spouse’s gender. The state Health Department, which had stopped issuing and amending birth certificates Friday morning because of Fox’s ruling, resumed after the governor’s directive.