Do Now:

Grab today’s Agenda (3:5).If you get married in one state, are you

married in all states? Prove it!

Full Faith and Credit

• Article IV, Section 1• Marriage

Article IV, Section 1

Define • States are required to give full faith and credit

to the public acts, records, and civil judicial proceedings of every other state.

• Original purpose was to prevent a state’s inadvertent (or advertent) protection of someone escaping the judgment of another state.

Article IV, Section 1

Application• Family Law– Orders of protection – according to the Violence

Against Women Act of 1994 (reauthorized in 2000, 2005, and 2013), an order of protection made in one state must be recognized and applied in other states.

– Child Support – according to the Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act, child support judgments made in one state must be recognized and applied in other states.

Marriage

Full Faith and Credit• Marriages made in one state must be recognized

in other states• Divorces finalized in one state must be

recognized in other states. This includes alimony and custody agreements.

MarriageSame-sex marriage…• Issue building for decades with groups and states here and there

granting provisions in some form of acceptance of same-sex marriages or unions within a state.

• Baehr v. Mike (1993) (Not a U.S. Supreme Court Case)– 3 same-sex couples applied for marriage license s in Hawaii and

denied.– Hawaii State Supreme Court: Denying marriage licenses to same-sex

couples could constitute discrimination on sex. The state may constitutionally pass such a law if it can argue that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples further compels state interests, while not abridging constitutional rights.

– State failed to prove it and so the court ruled there was no constitutional justification banning same-sex marriages.

– 1998, Hawaii voters approved an amendment to their state constitution permitting their legislature to ban same-sex marriage.

Marriage

Same-sex marriages… (continued)• As a result, if a state can legally marry same-sex couples, do

other states have to recognize those marriages, per the Full Faith and Credit Clause?

MarriageSame-sex Marriage (continued)• State Legislation

o Majority of states, including some that have benefits for same-sex relationships, have restricted recognition of marriage to unions of one man and one woman either by statute law or an amendment to their state constitution.

o Most do not recognize same-sex unions from other jurisdictions, including other jurisdictions of the United States. States that permit same-sex marriage recognizes same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions.

MarriageSame-Sex Marriage (continued)• Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

o Congress passed DOMA in 1996.o Purpose of act was to define marriage for purposes of federal

benefits.o Section 3:

Marriage = “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”

Spouse = “only a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.”

o Obama Administration defended DOMA in 2009… and then in 2011, began to challenge the constitutionality of Section 3.

Should same-sex couples have the right to marry?

Yes No

Prohibiting same-sex marriage violates the principles of equality and fairness embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Marriage is a building block of society. The government can legitimately protect this fundamental social institution by distinguishing between heterosexual and homosexual unions.

Distinguishing between heterosexual and homosexual unions stigmatizes same-sex couples and creates an unconstitutional group of “second class” citizens.

Same-sex couples can be accorded equal protection rights through legal contracts or civil unions, but the historical definition of marriage as between a man and a woman should be preserved.

The Constitution should protect the rights of minorities against unchecked majority will.

The Constitution should not be used to put a “government stamp of approval” on a relationship some people find immoral.

The purpose of marriage is to publicly sanction the desire for life-long commitment and should be available to both homosexual and heterosexual couples.

The purpose of marriage is to publicly sanction the having and raising of children and should be limited to heterosexual couples.

Marriage Equality

Everyone come up and write below the values you have found in the excerpts from your

packet.

Points of View

Point of View Value(s) Potential Consequence(s)The federal government should recognize only marriages between a man and a woman. The legalization of same-sex marriage gives a “government stamp of approval” to a relationship that many people consider immoral and reinforces harmful social trends already undermining traditional views of marriage.

The federal government should recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships that grant legal protections, inheritance rights, hospital visitation rights, and child custody arrangements to same-sex couples. Same-sex couples should not be denied the benefits and privileges that married opposite-sex couples enjoy, but the legal definition of marriage should be between a man and a woman.

The federal government should allow the states to determine who is entitled to be married. Marriage is traditionally controlled by each state, and maintaining that separation of state and federal power keeps decision-making closer to the people and allows a socially divisive issue to be worked out state-by-state over time.

The federal government should recognize same-sex marriages. Denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and is a form of discrimination no different from the racial discrimination that once barred interracial marriages.

MarriageSame-sex Marriage (continued)• Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

o United States v. Windsor (2013)Facts of the Case: Edith Windsor is the widow and sole executor of

the estate of her late spouse, Thea Clara Spyer, who died in 2009. The two were married in Toronto, Canada, in 2007, and their marriage was recognized by New York state law. Thea Spyer left her estate to her spouse, and because their marriage was not recognized by federal law (DOMA), the government imposed $363,000 in taxes. Had their marriage been recognized, the estate would have qualified for a marital exemption, and no taxes would have been imposed.

Question: Does the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines the term “marriage” under federal law as a “legal union between one man and one woman” deprive same-sex couples who are legally married under state laws of their Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection under federal law?

MarriageSame-sex Marriage (continued)• Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

o United States v. Windsor (2013)Decision (5-4): Yes. States have the authority to define

marital relationships and that DOMA goes against legislative and historical precedent by undermining that authority. The result is that DOMA denies same-sex couples the rights that come from federal recognition of marriage, which are viable to other couples with legal marriages under state law. The purpose and effect of DOMA is to impose a “disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma” on same-sex couples in violation of the 5th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. The federal government will recognize same-sex marriages that come from states that have legalized same-sex marriages.

MarriageSame-sex Marriage (continued)• October 6, 2014

o Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Wisconsin all had legislation/amendments refusing to recognize gay marriages.

o In each state, a suit was brought against the legislation/amendment in federal court questioning its constitutionality.

o In each case, the court found the legislation/amendment to be unconstitutional.

o All five states decided to attempt their appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court.o On October 6, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.o What does this mean?

The Supreme Court is letting the decision of the lower courts stand.The legislation/amendments are unconstitutional.Gay marriage, for now, is legal in those 5 states.

Relationship Between the States• Full Faith and Credit (see above)• Extradition

– States are required to return a person charged with a crime in another state to that state for trial and imprisonment.

– Although there is no way to force states to comply, they usually are happy to do so, not wishing to harbor criminals and hoping that other states will reciprocate.

• Privileges and Immunities– Citizens of each state receive all the privileges and immunities of any other

state in which they happen to be.– There are many exceptions to this:

• in-state-tuition at universities• only state residents may vote.

– The Supreme Court has never clarified just which privileges can be limited to its own citizens. In general, the more fundamental the rights – such as owning property or receiving police protection – the less likely it is that a state can discriminate against citizens of another state.

Conclusion

• Article IV of the U.S. Constitution outlines the relationship between the states.

• The Full Faith and Credit Clause was meant to ensure justice among the states. It has since developed into a question of equality of citizens among the states, particularly within the realm of marriage.

• The clauses on extradition and privileges and immunities further works to ensure justice and equality among the states.