State Statutes and the Full Faith and Credit Clause -- Hughes v. Fetter

Abstract

The full faith and credit clause of the Constitution' has commonly been regarded as concerned only with the enforcement of foreign judgments between the states of the Union. The numerous cases which have come before the Supreme Court have dealt almost exclusively with the "judicial Proceedings" phrase of the clause, while the words "public Acts" and "Records" have been, for the most part, left untapped as a source of decisional law. It has only been in recent years that the Supreme Court has broadened its approach by applying the full faith and credit clause to the legislative acts of the states as well as to judgments.