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Cite as:  582 U. S. ____ (2017) 

1 

Per Curiam 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARISA N. PAVAN, ET AL. v. NATHANIEL SMITH 

ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME 

COURT OF ARKANSAS
 

No. 16–992.  Decided June 26, 2017

 PER CURIAM. 

As  this  Court  explained  in  Obergefell  v.  Hodges,  576
 
U. S.  ___  (2015),  the  Constitution  entitles  same-sex  cou-
ples  to  civil  marriage  “on  the  same  terms  and  conditions 
as opposite-sex couples.”  Id., at ___ (slip op., at 23).  In the 
decision  below,  the  Arkansas  Supreme  Court  considered 
the effect of that holding on the State’s rules governing the
issuance  of  birth  certificates.    When  a  married  woman 
gives  birth  in  Arkansas,  state  law  generally  requires  the 
name of the mother’s male spouse to appear on the child’s 
birth  certificate—regardless  of  his  biological  relationship 
to  the  child.  According  to  the  court  below,  however,  Ar-
kansas  need  not  extend  that  rule  to  similarly  situated
same-sex  couples:  The  State  need  not,  in  other  words, 
issue  birth  certificates  including  the  female  spouses  of
women who give birth in the State.  Because that differen-
tial  treatment  infringes  Obergefell’s  commitment  to  pro-
vide  same-sex  couples  “the  constellation  of  benefits  that
the States have linked to marriage,” id., at ___ (slip op., at 17), 
we reverse the state court’s judgment. 

The  petitioners  here  are  two  married  same-sex  couples 
who  conceived  children  through  anonymous  sperm  dona-
tion.  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