Michael H. v. Gerald D.

Michael H. v. Gerald D.
Argued October 11, 1988
Decided June 15, 1989
Full case nameMichael H. and Victoria D. v. Gerald D.
Citations491 U.S. 110 (more)
Case history
PriorSummary judgment for defendant aff'd, 191 Cal. App. 3d 995 (Cal. Ct. App. 1987); probable jurisdiction noted, 485 U.S. 903 (1988)
Holding
California's conclusive-presumption law does not violate the Due Process Clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice
William Rehnquist
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White
Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
Case opinions
PluralityScalia, joined by Rehnquist; O'Connor and Kennedy (in part)
ConcurrenceO'Connor (in part), joined by Kennedy
ConcurrenceStevens (in judgment)
DissentBrennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun
DissentWhite, joined by Brennan
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U.S. 110 (1989), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving substantive due process in the context of paternity law. Splitting five to four, the Court rejected a challenge to a California law that presumed that a married woman's child was a product of that marriage, holding that the due-process rights of a man who claimed to be a child's biological father had not been violated.