Abstract
This paper evaluates the effect of the Full Faith and Credit Clause and its implementing statute on the recognition by one state of a non-traditional marriage, most obviously a same-sex marriage, in another state. The paper argues that federal constitutional principles, including full-faith-and-credit principles, are almost entirely irrelevant to the debate. As a result, the question of whether one state will recognize another's same-sex marriage is a political decision that must be resolved state by state. The federal Defense of Marriage Act is thus constitutional, although it does little more than to state what the law would be without it.