ORLANDO, Fla. – A federal court judge rules in favor of the same-sex spouses adding their name to the death certificate of their partners in Florida in connection with the US Supreme Court 2015 ruling.
Same-sex spouses in Florida have been fighting for their right to add their names to their partner’s death certificate despite the 2015 ruling of the US Supreme Court regarding the Obergefell v. Hodges which has changed the laws for gay widows and widowers.
The 2015 court ruling has required the state to include the names of the same-sex spouses on the death certificate of their partners. However, Florida has refused to follow the ruling for the cases of spouses who have died before the ruling. Florida has maintained the old law that requires same-sex spouses to pursue individual court orders for them to change the certificates.
That was changed on Thursday, March 23 when Robert Hinkle, a US District Judge, ruled that the state should allow the spouses to add their names to the death certificate of their partner without having to go to and fight it in court.
Hal F.B. Birchfield was the one who brought this issue to court. He was legally married in 2012 with James Merrick Smith who died in 2013 in Florida. This was also forwarded by Paul Mocko was also legally married in 2014 to William Gregory Patterson who also died a year later.
Both men have died before the ruling for Obergefell v. Hodges. This is why the Florida Constitution did not allow Birchfield’s and Mocko’s names on the death certificates of their partners.
Judge Hinkle, however, disagreed with the old policy of Florida regarding the issue. He wrote that a state can’t properly refuse to correct a federal constitution violation even if a certain violation arose before the argument over a constitutional issue was settled. He also wrote that if the law were to be the opposite, the schools might still be segregated.
The ruling requires the state officials to amend the death certificates without requiring any court order when it comes to same-sex marriages that are recognized to be legal in the jurisdiction where they were registered.
Hinkle’s ruling is not his first decision that surrounds the rights for the same-sex couples. In addition, he also required the surviving spouses to provide necessary documents like the affidavit that shows that the marriage was not recognized or that the same-sex partner was not identified.
