Do we actually know how FF&C would play out? For example, if Vermont has an option for civil unions, what does that matter for Nebraska. If Nebraska has no laws that specify the treatment of parties to civil unions, then can't they just ignore the situation? If you have laws based on civil unions, then you'd have to treat people united under Vermont's laws the same as those united under Nebraska's. If Nebraska has none, then what is their obligation? I wouldn't see any. If Vermont actually married a pair of Nebraska gay's, that's different, then Nebraska would have to recognize the marriage, but what does a civil union matter. Hey, Vermont could award an official status of "beautiful" or "king of the realm" or "sedlecator" to someone and no one in Nebraska would be affected unless they had their own sedlecator law.
Likewise, Nebraska's laws about marriage wouldn't change even if Massachusetts passes a gay marriage law. Nebraska's gays would only be married in Nebraska if they went to Massachusetts to be married. No? Nebraskans would marry in Nebraska just as they always have. Sure, some folks would travel to Massachusetts to get married, but Nebraska doesn't have to change its laws. It doesn't have to change anything. Assuming that some Nebraskans would travel to Vermont to marry would only be different in that there would be more married folk than there were before and Nebraska is stuck recognizing marriages that it did not and would not, itself, sanction. It does that now when it recognized marriages of immigrant cousins who were married abroad.
Am I mistake about the implications of FF&C? I must say that I have never looked at the law or given it much thought. |
