Editing Full Faith and Credit Clause (section)

== Background ==
A similar clause existed in Article IV of the [[Articles of Confederation]], the predecessor to the U.S. Constitution: "Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State."<ref>[http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/artconf.shtml Articles of Confederation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070725200756/http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/artconf.shtml |date=July 25, 2007 }} (1777).</ref> In 1781, a committee of the [[Continental Congress]] reported that execution of that clause in the Articles of Confederation required a declaration of two different things: "[1] the method of exemplifying records and [2] the operation of the Acts and judicial proceedings of the Courts of one State contravening those of the States in which they are asserted."<ref>{{cite book |last=Bancroft |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWM2NEJgmWgC&pg=PA286 |title=History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America |edition=2nd |location=New York |orig-year=first published by D. Appleton and Company, 1882 |page=286 |year=2000 |publisher=The Lawbook Exchange |lccn=99-23946 |isbn=1-58477-002-3}}</ref>

A Pennsylvania court stated in 1786, that this provision in the Articles of Confederation did not direct that "executions might issue in one state upon the judgments given in another", but rather was "chiefly intended to oblige each state to receive the records of another as full evidence of such acts and judicial proceedings."<ref>''James v. Allen'', [http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a4_1s2.html 1 Dall. (1 U.S.) 188, 191–92] (Pa. 1786).</ref>

At the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|1787 Constitutional Convention]], [[James Madison]] said that he wanted to supplement that provision in the Articles of Confederation, to let Congress "provide for the execution of [[Judgment (law)|Judgment]]s in other States, under such regulations as might be expedient."<ref>[http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a4_1s4.html "Records of the Federal Convention"], ''The Founders Constitution''.</ref> By September 1, 1787, negotiations at the Constitutional Convention had led to the following draft which included supplementary language as Madison had requested, similar to what the committee of the Continental Congress had reported in 1781:<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oJnWZMHtDbAC&q=%22authorize+the+general+legislature+to+declare+the+effect%22&pg=RA1-PA504|title= Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution|last1= Elliot|first1= Jonathan|year= 1861}}</ref>

{{quote|Full faith and credit ought to be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings, of every other state; and the legislature shall, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings, shall be proved, and the effect which judgments, obtained in one state, shall have in another.}}

After several further modifications, the Full Faith and Credit Clause assumed the form in which it remains today. [[James Wilson (Founding Father)|James Wilson]] said during the constitutional convention that, if Congress were to not use its power under the latter part of this clause, then the former part of this clause "would amount to nothing more than what now takes place among all Independent Nations".<ref>[https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_903.asp "Madison Debates"] (September 3, 1787), Avalon Project, Yale Law School.</ref> Later, during the ratification process, James Madison remarked further on this subject, in [[Federalist No. 42|''Federalist'' No. 42]]. He wrote that the corresponding clause in the Articles of Confederation was "extremely indeterminate, and can be of little importance under any interpretation which it will bear".<ref name="Federalist">Madison, James. [http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa42.htm ''Federalist'' #42] (1788).</ref> Of the expanded clause in the Constitution, Madison wrote that it established a power that "may be rendered a very convenient instrument of justice, and be particularly beneficial on the borders of contiguous States."<ref name="Federalist" />