Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

What God -- or the State -- has lawfully joined will sooner or later be subject to the
winds of time, and many marriages end up cast like boats upon the rocks of life. That is
where we as CSE offices have come in to work our magic. There is no reason to expect that
same sex couples will be any better at the marriage thing then their straight cousins, who
after all have had a millennia to work on marriage but still can’t seem to get it right. Same
sex families have a lower instance of raising children then heterosexual ones, but still a fair
number of children are adopted 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. In May 2012 a
separate Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts also ruled unanimously that
DOMA violates the federal civil rights of married gays and lesbians. Two other federal
courts in California have reached the same conclusion. However, only the US Supreme
Court can finally determine the constitutionality of a federal law. A DOMA case has been
accepted for hearing by the US Supreme Court, and is on the court’s spring 2013 calendar.
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
† A total of 10 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 spring 2013. As of November 2012 this list includes:
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