Cite as: 533 U. S. 53 (2001)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
§ 1409(a)(1). (Satisfaction of § 1409(a)(4) by a written acknowledgment of paternity under oath, see § 1409(a)(4)(B), would seem to do little, if anything, to advance the assurance of a blood relationship, further stretching the means-end fit in this context.) Likewise, petitioners' argument does not depend on the idea that one particular method of establishing paternity is constitutionally required. Petitioners' argument rests instead on the fact that, if the goal is to obtain proof of paternity, the existence of a statutory provision governing such proof, coupled with the efficacy and availability of modern technology, is highly relevant to the sufficiency of the tailoring between § 1409(a)(4)'s sex-based classification and the asserted end. Because § 1409(a)(4) adds little to the work that § 1409(a)(1) does on its own, it is difficult to say that § 1409(a)(4) "substantially furthers" an important governmental interest. Kirchberg, 450 U. S., at 461.
The majority concedes that Congress could achieve the goal of assuring a biological parent-child relationship in a sex-neutral fashion, but then, in a surprising turn, dismisses the availability of sex-neutral alternatives as irrelevant. As the Court suggests, "Congress could have required both mothers and fathers to prove parenthood within 30 days or, for that matter, 18 years, of the child's birth." Ante, at 64 (citing Miller, supra, at 436 (opinion of Stevens, J.)). Indeed, whether one conceives the majority's asserted interest as assuring the existence of a biological parent-child relationship, ante, at 62, or as ensuring acceptable documentation of that relationship, ante, at 63, a number of sex-neutral arrangements—including the one that the majority offers— would better serve that end. As the majority seems implicitly to acknowledge at one point, ante, at 62, a mother will not always have formal legal documentation of birth because a birth certificate may not issue or may subsequently be lost. Conversely, a father's name may well appear on a birth certificate. While it is doubtless true that a mother's blood re-
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