Henderson v. Box
{{Short description|US court case}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox court case
| name = Henderson v. Box
| court = United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
| full name = Ashlee and Ruby Henderson et al. v. Kristina Box
| date decided = January 17, 2020
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| judges = Joel Flaum, Frank Easterbrook, Diane Sykes
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| decision by = Frank Easterbrook, joined by unanimous
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| appealed from = United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
| appealed to = Supreme Court of the United States
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Henderson v. Box was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that Indiana must list same-sex parents on their child's birth certificate. The case was brought before the court by eight lesbian couples from Indiana who conceived through artificial insemination.{{cite web|url=https://www.outfrontmagazine.com/supreme-court-upholds-marriage-equality/|title=Supreme Court Upholds Marriage Equality|last=Manzari|first=Ray|work=Out Front Magazine|date=2020-12-16|access-date=2022-07-20}}
Background
While Indiana began allowing same-sex couples to marry in 2015 following the Supreme Court's ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges, the Indiana Department of Vital Records refused to list same-sex spouses on their children' birth certificates.{{cite web|last=Vasquez|first=Christopher|title=Henderson v. Box|url=https://www.nclrights.org/our-work/cases/henderson-v-box/|access-date=2022-06-28|website=National Center for Lesbian Rights|language=en}} Indiana's birth certificate system would not list the birth mother's wife's name unless they adopted their children and children of same-sex parents would be deemed to have been born "out of wedlock".{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/7th-circuit-same-sex-parents-birth-certificate-delay.html|title=Why Has a Federal Appeals Court Been Sitting on a Major Case for 32 Months?| author=Mark Joseph Stern |work=Slate|date=2020-01-09|access-date=2022-07-20}} Married opposite-sex couples with children are granted "presumption of parenthood", wherein the husband of the mother is assumed to be the child's father.{{cite web|last1=Vedder|first1=James J.|last2=Miller|first2=Brittney M.|date=2018-04-01|title=Presumptions in Paternity Cases: Who Is the Father in the Eyes of the Law?|url=https://www.americanbar.org/groups/family_law/publications/family-advocate/2018/spring/4spring2018-vedder/|access-date=2022-07-11|website=American Bar Association}} This presumption of parenthood was not extended to non-biological parents and non-birth mothers.
Eight lesbian couples who conceived children through sperm donation filed a lawsuit to have both parents listed on their children's birth certificates. In 2016, the federal District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ordered the state to place the spouses of people who gave birth on their children's birth certificate, regardless of the spouses' gender.
Opinion of the Court
On January 17, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit published an opinion written by Judge Easterbrook confirming that Indiana's parentage system discriminated against same-sex parents. The Court held that the rules violated the precedent established in Obergefell v. Hodges and Pavan v. Smith.{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/indiana-same-sex-marriage-birth-certificate.html|title=After 32 Month Delay, 7th Circuit Affirms Equal Rights for Same-Sex Parents|last=Stern|first=Mark Joseph|work=Slate|date=2020-01-17|access-date=2022-07-20}} The Court affirmed the district court's decision by acknowledging Indiana's refusal to recognize both married parents as unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.{{cite web|last=Symdigital|title=U. S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Challenge to Same-Sex Parent Birth Certificates: Box v. Henderson|url=https://www.dewittllp.com/news-education/posts/2020/12/21/u.-s.-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-challenge-to-same-sex-parent-birth-certificates-box-v.-henderson|access-date=2022-06-28|website=DeWitt LLP|language=en}}
Supreme Court appeal
In June 2020, Indiana's Attorney General Curtis Hill filed a petition to the Supreme Court, requesting it to review the federal appeals court's ruling.{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/f5a21cea235551bb83f674c04ff1f372|title=Indiana asks high court to review birth certificate ruling|date=2020-06-20|work=Associated Press News|access-date=2022-07-20}} In November, he filed a brief, making a case for the reversal of the court's decision.{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/gay-parents-shouldn-t-both-be-child-s-birth-certificate-n1249358|title=Gay parents shouldn't both be on child's birth certificate, Indiana AG argues|work=NBC News|date=2020-11-30|access-date=2022-07-20}} In December, the Supreme Court declined to take up the case, in what was deemed a victory for LGBTQ families.{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/victory-lgbtq-families-supreme-court-denies-indiana-birth-certificate-case-n1251147|title= In 'victory' for LGBTQ families, Supreme Court denies Indiana birth certificate case|work=NBC News|date=2020-12-14|access-date=2022-07-20}}
References
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External links
- [https://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2020/D01-17/C:17-1141:J:Easterbrook:aut:T:fnOp:N:2460609:S:0 Ashlee and Ruby Henderson et al. v. Kristina Box case file on uscourts.gov]
Category:LGBTQ rights in Indiana
Category:Legal history of Indiana
Category:2020 in LGBTQ history
Category:United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit cases