Andrea Joy Campbell: “I speak to a specific point, the constitutionality of what we do today, because the issue had been raised. I begin with…”

“I speak to a specific point, the constitutionality of what we do today, because the issue had been raised. I begin with drawing my colleagues' attention to Article 4, Section 1: ``Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records and judicial Proceedings of every other State.'' But I urge my colleagues to read to the second sentence of that section: ``And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records, and Proceedings shall be proved and the Effect thereof.'' The second sentence of that provision of the Constitution is quite important to understand the constitutionality of the bill we debate today, because whereas the general rule is that full faith and credit is to be given to the acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State, an exception is created if Congress chooses by general law, as opposed to a specific law to a specific contract, by general law to prescribe the manner in which such records and proceedings are proved, and the effect thereof. I emphasize the second phrase, ``The effect thereof.'' A leading treatise on the field of constitutional law, the Library of Congress' own contracted work, the annotated Constitution, at page 870, refers to this power in the context of divorce, not marriage; we do not have any quotation from this source on marriage.…”