Hitchcock v. Aicken
1 Caines 460 N.Y. 1803
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The 4th article of the constitution declares, "That 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." This article, I think, manifestly presents two subjects for legislative provision; 1st. To prescribe the manner of proving such acts, records and proceedings; and 2dly. Their effect. In pursuance of this power we find congress, by an act passed 26th May, 1790, (Laws U. S. vol. 1, 159,) after prescribing the mode of proof, declaring, "That the said records and judicial proceedings, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them, in every court within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from whence the said records, are or shall be taken. The framers of this constitution, doubtless, well understood the light in which foreign judgments were viewed in courts of justice, and must have intended, by this article, to place the states upon a different footing with respect to each other than that on which they stood in relation to foreign nations; had not this been their intention, they would have been silent on the subject. I am aware that the old confederation contained a similar article, (4th article,) declaring that "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."
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Although the act of congress does not adopt the term effect, as stated by the judge, yet, if it means any thing, it means to declare the effect. It says, "The said records and judicial proceedings, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them, in every court within the United States, as they have, by law or usage, in the courts of the state from whence the said records are, or shall be taken." ... If nothing more was intended than to declare the manner of authenticating such records and proceedings, this part of the act is useless; nay, worse it is mischievous, being calculated to mislead. ... If a judgment in the state of Connecticut would not be conclusive there, but only prima facie evidence, it would be unreasonable to consider it conclusive here; and if conclusive there between the parties, I can see no substantial reason against considering it so here. When the matter has been once litigated, and the merits fairly tried, it appears to me to be contrary to sound principles, and tending to promote litigation, and against the very genius and spirit of the article of the constitution above referred to, again to open the judgment. I think the rule laid down by the court, in the case of Kibbe v. Kibbe, above cited, is founded in justice and good sense, that the judgments of courts, in sister states, ought to receive full credence where both parties were within the jurisdiction of the court at the time of commencing the suit, and were duly served with process, and had, or might have had, a fair trial of the cause.
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It appears from these decisions, that judgments in other states were not regarded under the confederation as of binding and conclusive effect; and the defendant was admitted to deny the regularity and equity of the proceedings by which the judgment was obtained. This was placing the judgments of the other states on the basis of foreign judgments, which are received only as prima facie evidence of the debt; and it lies with the defendant to impeach the justice thereof, or to show them to have been irregularly or unduly granted. Sinclair v. Fraser, cited in Doug. 5, note, and in Appendix, p. 6, 7, in the case of Galbraith and Neville.
Such being the received construction of the injunction, that full faith and credit was to be given to the judicial proceedings of other states, it remains to see whether the case is altered under the existing constitution of the United States. That constitution, by authorizing congress to prescribe not only the manner in which the acts, records and proceedings of other states shall be proved, but their effect evidently distinguished between giving full faith and credit, and the giving effect to the records of another state, and until congress shall have declared by law what that effect shall be, the records of different states are left precisely in the situation they were in under the articles of confederation.
The act of congress of 26th May, 1790, is entitled "An act to prescribe the mode in which the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings in each state shall be authenticated, so as to take effect in every other state." After prescribing the mode of authentication, it declares that the records and judicial proceedings so authenticated, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from whence they are taken. This act leaves the question as to the effect of such records precisely where it found it.
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It is pretty evident that the constitution meant nothing more by full faith and credit, than what respected the evidence of such proceedings; for the words are applied to public acts, as well as to judicial matters; nor ought the act of congress to be carried further than the words will warrant.
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The Founders' Constitution
Volume 4, Article 4, Section 1, Document 8
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a4_1s8.html
The University of Chicago Press