Bar Exam Practice Questions 2025 – Your All-in-One Guide to Mastering the Bar Exam!

The full faith and credit clause, found in Article IV, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, mandates that each state must recognize and honor the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. This provision ensures that legal decisions, such as court rulings and legislative acts, made in one state are recognized and enforced in another.

For example, if a couple is married in one state, their marriage must be recognized by other states, even if those states have different laws regarding marriage. The purpose of this clause is to promote a sense of unity and cooperation among states, allowing for smoother legal proceedings and recognition of rights across state lines.

The other choices do not correctly capture the principle behind the full faith and credit clause. The first choice suggests that states operate in isolation without recognizing external laws or decisions, which contradicts the collaborative intent of the clause. The second choice implies that residents are only subject to local laws, overlooking the broader obligations that states have towards one another. The last choice inaccurately limits the scope to federal laws only and ignores the importance of state laws and decisions being recognized by other states.