Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

into or born into these relationships. As marriages with children fail, the parties will look to the
courts for assistance, and then to us. Possibly they will look to us first, in cases of separation
where state assistance is involved. Questions will immediately be raised. Can we assist same
sex parents in securing an award of support from their marital ex-partner? How will we address
via UIFSA court orders for support from same sex relationships? Already in states where same
sex marriage is not authorized divorces between same sex couples have been granted. These will
be finding their way to your desk in the coming months and years.
At present, the Federal ―Defense of Marriage Act‖ (DOMA) remains on the books,
although the Obama Administration has signaled that the act is likely unconstitutional, and will
not defend it further in court. It reads in relevant part:
No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be
required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any
other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between
persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such
other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such
relationship.
The Obama Administration and others believe that DOMA runs afoul of Article IV, section
1 of the Federal Constitution, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which reads:
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and
judicial Proceedings of every other State; And the Congress may by general Laws
prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be
proved, and the Effect thereof.
A federal court in Massachusetts in 2010 held DOMA unconstitutional. That decision is on
appeal. It is expected to end up before the US Supreme Court in 2012.
An interesting report of the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress
on this general issue may be viewed at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rl31994.pdf
Tune in to this space for further updates as they become available.
† A total of 6 states, two tribes (the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon and the Suquamish
Tribe in Washington State) plus the District of Columbia have approved same sex
marriage as of early 2010. As of December 2011 this list includes:
Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
York and Vermont.
California also recognizes the 18,000 same sex marriages that were performed in the
Golden Bear State before the state law changed to stop same sex marriage in 2008. In addition,
a federal court has declared that the California initiative blocking same sex marriages violates
the federal constitution. That is now on a trajectory to be appealed to a panel of the 9 th Federal
Circuit in December, 2010.
Massachusetts approved same sex marriage in 2005. Iowa began issuing same sex
marriage licenses in April 2009 (some 13,000 couples were married in the first year).
Connecticut also began issuing licenses in early 2009. California’s judicial marriage ruling was
rescinded by popular vote in 2008, however it is now on appeal in the federal court system on an
equal protection argument. NY rejected such legislation in December 2009. Maryland’s
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