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Sexuality and the Law

2010

California Western School of Law

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Why Appellate Courts Have Rejected The Argument That The Defense Of Marriage Act Trumps The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, Barbara Cox Jan 2010

Why Appellate Courts Have Rejected The Argument That The Defense Of Marriage Act Trumps The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

The author seeks to explain why courts should not be permitted to interpret the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to displace judgment recognition based on a forum state's public policy against legal relationships for same-sex couples. If courts interpret DOMA in this manner, nothing would prevent Congress from exempting other types of judgments from the protection of the Full Faith and Credit clause, thereby permitting relitigation of judgments that are now considered final and binding in every state.