# Heather Martin Gartner and Melissa Gartner, Individually and as Next Friends of Mackenzie Jean Gartner, a Minor Child v. Iowa Department of Public Health

> Supreme Court of Iowa · May 3, 2013 · 830 N.W.2d 335

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9880307

## Case

- **Full name:** Heather Martin GARTNER and Melissa Gartner, Individually and as Next Friends of MacKenzie Jean Gartner, a Minor Child, Appellees, v. IOWA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Iowa
- **Decided:** May 3, 2013
- **Citations:** 830 N.W.2d 335; 2013 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 49; 2013 WL 1856789
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Mansfield
- **Judges:** Wiggins, Mansfield, Waterman, Zager
- **Cited by:** 33 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9880307

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding that presumption of parentage statute, which expressly referred to a mother, father, and husband, violated equal protection as applied to a married lesbian couple to whom a child was born to one of the spouses during the couple’s marriage; identifying appropriate re…
- holding that refusal of Department of Public Health to identify the spouse of married same-sex couple as parent of child conceived by assisted reproduction violated guarantees of equal protection
- holding that in Iowa the putative parent is the equivalent of a biological parent, unless a person rebuts the presumption by “ ‘clear, strong, and satisfactory evidence’ ”
- holding the terms "paternity," "father," and "husband" were not exclusively within the expertise of the department and thus deference to agency interpretation would be overreaching

## Opinion text

MANSFIELD, Justice
(concurring specially).
The Iowa Department of Public Health accepts the decision in Varnum v. Brien, 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009), for purposes of this appeal. I agree that if Vamum is the law, then Iowa Code section 144.13(2) cannot be constitutionally applied to deny Melissa Gartner’s request to be listed as parent on the birth certificate of the child delivered by her same-sex spouse. Accordingly, I concur in the judgment in this case.
WATERMAN, J., joins this, special concurrence.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9880307. Public record. Not legal advice.