Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Let's Read the Constitution Day!

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January 18, 2011

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 12

Hatched by Dafydd

A minor clause; a Pandora's box of controversy...

Article IV - The States

Section 1 - Each State to Honor all others

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section 2 - State citizens, Extradition

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. (This clause in strikethrough is superseded by the 13th Amendment.)

[Current language from the 13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.]

The simple, seemingly trivial promise of Article IV, section 1, has proved to be a huge constitutional quagmire: If one or more states decide to accept same-sex marriage (SSM) or polygamous marriage (PM), then is every state obliged to accept SSM and PM? Does the "full faith and credit" clause really mean that every state is obliged to enforce the loosest definition of marriage and other privileged unions among all the United States? Or does Congress have the power to "prescribe" that SSM and PM are not among those "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings" to which "full faith and credit" applies?

The Supreme Court has so far declined to rule on the question of whether the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is constitutional in either of its principal parts: Whether every state is obliged to accept a marriage other than between one man and one woman simply because some other state does, and whether the federal government may define marriage for federal purposes as a union between one man and one woman. Until it does so rule, one way or the other, we're in the dark on that clause of the Constitution and whether it constitutionally mandates SSM and PM.

All verses in the Lizardian Constitutional Collection:

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 1 (Preamble)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 2 (Congress; House, part I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 3 (House, part II)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 4 (Senate, part I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 5 (Senate, part II)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 6 (General congressional admin stuff)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 7 (Legislative process and enumerated powers)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 8 (Limitations)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 9 (The prez -- who does he think he is?)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 10 (What would a president do?)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 11 (Judiciary)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 12 (States, part I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 13 (States, part 2)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 14 (Amendment; supreme law of the land)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 15 (Ratification rules and signers)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 16 (Amendments: Bill of Rights, Amendments 1-4)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 17 (Bill of Rights -- Courtroom Amendments 5-8)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 18 (Bill of Last Rights 9 and 10)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 19 (Amendments: Suing other states, president vs. vice president)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 20 (Amendments: Abolition of slavery)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 21 (Amendments: States prohibited from infringing rights)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 22 (Amendments: Racial voting rights)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 23 (Amendments: Wilsonian-Progressivism I)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 24 (Amendments: Wilsonian-Progressivism II)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 25 (Amendments: Rooseveltian amendments)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 26 (Amendments: Camelot amendments)

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 27 (Amendments: Panacea amendments)

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 18, 2011, at the time of 12:00 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: LarryD

The "Full Faith and Credit" clause was also problematical because of the issue of slavery. Forcing free States to enforce slave-owners rights on run-away slaves did not go over well.

IANAL, but a rephrasing along the order of "of every other State, treated equally as if they were executed locally." might do it. Something that makes clear that States must honor other States Acts as long as the Act would be Legal if executed in the recognizing State.

The above hissed in response by: LarryD at January 18, 2011 7:56 AM

The following hissed in response by: Roy Lofquist

Yup, that and the infield fly rule. The Federalist Papers don't seem to address the issue - correct me if I'm wrong.

I am basically a textualist. If an issue is specifically addressed in The Constitution or The Declaration or The Federalist Papers then it is a sacred contract between the States and the Federal Government.

When not addressed thus we have to fall back on the procedural structure. The founders were visionaries, but not omniscient. I'm not even sure God is omniscient. Makes for an interesting playground for lizards.

The above hissed in response by: Roy Lofquist at January 18, 2011 9:15 AM

The following hissed in response by: mdgiles

I don't think the "full faith and credit" clause was thought of as a problem to the states at the time of ratification, because no one could really conceive of one state trying to force it's laws on another. I think that was one of the cause of the enormous hostility caused by the Fugitive Slave Act. It, in effect, made the laws of the Slave states superior to that of the Free states within the Free states. Oddly enough, it was one of the first cases of an attempt by a small minority to to use the power of the Federal government to force their interpretation of the Constitution down the majority of the public's throats.

The above hissed in response by: mdgiles at January 18, 2011 10:28 AM