## Facts

- Nebraska law limited what surnames could be entered on an infant’s birth certificate to those with a legally established parental connection.
- Debra Henne gave birth in 1985 while still legally married to Robert Henne, though separated and pursuing divorce.
- At the hospital, she initially sought to list Gary Brinton as the father and give the child the surname “Brinton,” but was told she could not do so because she remained married.
- She completed a revised form listing the child as “Alicia Renee Henne” and leaving the father’s name blank.
- Robert Henne did not claim paternity; the divorce decree did not require him to pay child support for the child.
- In 1988, Debra Henne sought to amend the birth certificate to change the surname to “Brinton” and list Brinton as father; the Bureau of Vital Statistics denied the request under the statute.
- Linda Spidell, unmarried, gave birth in 1988 and sought to list the child’s surname as “McKenzie,” a name she used for other children without a parental connection.
- Hospital personnel refused to accept “McKenzie,” and the birth certificate listed the child’s surname as “Spidell,” with the father left blank; no judicial paternity determination had been made.
- The mothers sued state health officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging the statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment by interfering with a claimed parental right to choose a child’s surname.
- The district court declared the statute unconstitutional and issued injunctive relief; the state officials appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the plaintiffs had standing and whether the action should have been dismissed for failure to join necessary parties under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19(a).
2. Whether parents have a fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment to choose any surname for a child on the birth certificate, including a surname lacking a legally established parental connection.
3. If no fundamental right is implicated, whether the statute is rationally related to legitimate state interests.

## Decision

- The court rejected the defendants’ standing and Rule 19(a) arguments and reached the merits.
- The court held that parents do not have a fundamental constitutional right to select any surname for a child’s birth certificate without a legally established parental connection.
- The court applied rational basis review rather than heightened scrutiny.
- The court held the statute rationally related to legitimate state interests in accurate vital records and administrative clarity regarding parentage.
- The court reversed the district court’s judgment and vacated the declaratory and injunctive relief upholding the challenge.

## Legal Principles

- Substantive due process protects certain parental decision-making, but not every parental preference is a fundamental right.
- A claimed fundamental right must be closely tied to historically recognized and deeply rooted liberty interests; surname selection for birth-certificate purposes, untethered to legal parentage, does not qualify.
- When a law does not burden a fundamental right, it is reviewed under rational basis scrutiny and will be upheld if reasonably related to a legitimate governmental interest.
- A state may regulate birth-certificate entries to preserve accurate and reliable records of legal parentage and to support orderly administration of legal relationships associated with parentage.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit upheld Nebraska’s restriction limiting birth-certificate surnames to those with a legally established parental connection, concluding that no fundamental right to choose any surname was burdened and that the statute satisfied rational basis review.


Henne v. Wright, 904 F.2d 1208 (8th Cir. 1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1032 (1991)