WREG.com

Judge may block Arkansas birth certificates over gender issue

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas judge is threatening to block the state from issuing new birth certificates if attorneys don’t quickly fix a birth certificate law that the U.S. Supreme Court says illegally favors heterosexual parents.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox on Monday gave attorneys for the state and three same-sex couples until Jan. 5 to find language that should be stricken from the state’s law.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June sided with Fox’s 2015 ruling that struck down part of the law defining parents by gender. That overturned a decision by the state Supreme Court.

The state Supreme Court last month ordered Fox to come up with a way for the state to comply with the U.S. court’s decision.