Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

their 19 th birthday, and the NCP provides proof of same, the marriage will serve to terminate the
child support obligation as of the date of the marriage.
What God -- or the State -- has lawfully joined will sooner or later be subject to the winds
of time, and many marriages end up cast like boats upon the rocks of life. That is where we as
CSE offices have come in to work our magic. There is no reason to expect that same sex couples
will be any better at the marriage thing then their straight cousins, who after all have had a
millennia to work on marriage but still can’t seem to get it right. Same sex families have a lower
instance of raising children then heterosexual ones, but still a fair number of children are adopted
into or born into these relationships. As marriages with children fail, the parties will look to the
courts for assistance, and then to us. Possibly they will look to us first, in cases of separation
where state assistance is involved. Questions will immediately be raised. Can we assist same
sex parents in securing an award of support from their marital ex-partner? How will we address
via UIFSA court orders for support from same sex relationships? Already in states where same
sex marriage is not authorized divorces between same sex couples have been granted. These will
be finding their way to your desk in the coming months and years.
At present, the Federal “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) remains on the books,
although the Obama Administration has signaled that the act is likely unconstitutional, and will
not defend it further in court. It reads in relevant part:
No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be
required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any
other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between
persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such
other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such
relationship.
The Obama Administration and others believe that DOMA runs afoul of Article IV, section
1 of the Federal Constitution, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which reads:
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.
A federal court in Massachusetts in 2010 held DOMA unconstitutional. In May 2012 a separate
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts also ruled unanimously that DOMA violates
the federal civil rights of married gays and lesbians. Two other federal courts in California have
reached the same conclusion. However, only the US Supreme Court can finally determine the
constitutionality of a federal law, and DOMA is expected to end up before the US Supreme
Court in the next term or two.
An interesting report of the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress
on this general issue may be viewed at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rl31994.pdf
Tune in to this space for further updates as they become available.
† A total of 8 states, two tribes (the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon and the Suquamish
Tribe in Washington State) plus the District of Columbia have approved same sex
marriage as of early 2010. As of May 2012 this list includes:
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