Michael W. McConnell

About the author: Michael W. McConnell is the William B. Graham Professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

The Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires that all states recognize the laws and legal judgments of other states, including marriages and divorces. However, the clause also gives Congress the power to dictate how one state's laws shall affect another state's laws. Therefore, this clause gives Congress the authority to legislate that a same-sex marriage performed in one state need not be recognized in other states.

Editor's note: The following viewpoint is a letter written July 10, 1996, to Orrin G. Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, concerning the Defense of Marriage Act. The act, signed into law by Bill Clinton in September 1996, defines marriage as "a legal union...