§1863.__Release of information

The State Registrar of Vital Statistics may release information relating to the acknowledgment of paternity as provided in Title 22, section 2706.

§1864.__Adoption of rules

The State Registrar of Vital Statistics may adopt rules to implement this subchapter.__Rules adopted pursuant to this section are routine technical rules for the purposes of Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.

Comment

(This is section 314 of the UPA.)

This section is bracketed to account for situations in which it may conflict with other rulemaking limitations in a particular state. States will implement voluntary acknowledgment of paternity procedures in a variety of ways, depending on local practice. This grant of rulemaking authority to carry out the provisions of this article may include electronic transmission of birth and acknowledgment data to the designated state agency.

SUBCHAPTER 4

REGISTRY OF PATERNITY

Comment

In Lehr v. Robertson, 463 U.S. 248 (1983), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a New York "putative father registry." A New York statute required a father of a child born out-of-wedlock to register if he wished to be notified of a termination of parental rights or adoption proceeding. Thereafter, a series of well-publicized adoption cases occurred in which state courts held that nonmarital fathers had not been given proper notice of such proceedings and voided established adoptions. A substantial number of legislatures responded to these decisions by enacting paternity registries similar to the New York statute. As of May, 2000, at least 28 states had enacted legislation creating paternity registries.

Initially, in 1988 the Conference took a much different view, stating: