Court Opinion

ID: 9428329
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:23:26.197196+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:12.855164
License: Public Domain

Justice Marshall,
dissenting in part.
I share the Court’s concerns for comity and for careful pleadings. Nonetheless, I do not believe that either of these concerns justifies the Court’s apparent conclusion that a petitioner who fails to cite the exact location of a federal constitutional provision has neglected to raise a claim on that ground.
The Court attempts to reason that the petitioner neglected to raise any claim under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution. As the Court acknowledges, however, petitioner “did use the phrase 'full faith and credit’ at several points in the proceedings below.” Ante, at 496. Indeed, she asserted in her amended complaint that the decision of the Florida court “should be accorded full faith and credit” by the Georgia court, and reiterated this claim in her enumeration of errors to the Georgia Supreme Court. The Court tries to translate these words as references not to the identical language in the Federal Constitution, but instead to a *503provision of Georgia law which fails to mention any of the three words, “full,” “faith,” or “credit.” See Ga. Code § 74-514 (1979), Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. The Georgia provision governs allocation of jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, which both Georgia and Florida have enacted as their own law. I fail to see how the interests of improved pleadings or comity are served by the Court’s strained refusal to ascribe to petitioner’s words their plain meaning.
It remains true that the Georgia Supreme Court neglected to pass on the import of the federal Full Faith and Credit Clause for this case. I would remand for such state review on that issue, rather than dismiss the writ and leave the decision below in place.