was
Justice Black in whose dissenting opinion Justice Douglas concurred.

"The full faith and credit clause, as now interpreted, has become a
disrupting influence. The Court in effect states that the clause does
not apply to divorce actions, and that States alone have the right to
determine what effect shall be given to the decrees of other States. If
the Court is abandoning the principle that a marriage [valid where made
is valid everywhere], a consequence is to subject people to bigamy or
adultery prosecutions because they exercise their constitutional right
to pass from a State in which they were validly married on to another
which refuses to recognize their marriage. Such a consequence violates
basic guarantees."

North Carolina's interest was to preserve a bare marital status as to
two persons who sought a divorce and two others who had not objected to
it. "It is an extraordinary thing for a State to procure a retroactive
invalidation of a divorce decree, and then punish one of its citizens
for conduct authorized by that decree, when it had never been challenged
by either of the people most immediately interested in it." The State
here did not sue to protect any North Carolina property rights nor to
obtain support for deserted families. "I would not permit such an
attenuated state interest to override the Full Faith and Credit Clause *
* *" (325 U.S. 226, 262-267 (1945)).

The unsettling effect of this decision was expressed statistically by
Justice Black as follows: "Statistics indicate that approximately five
million divorced persons are scattered throughout the forty-eight
States. More than 85% of these divorces were granted in uncontested
proceedings. Not one of this latter group can now retain any feeling of
security in his divorce decree. Ever present will be the danger of
criminal prosecution and harassment." Ibid. 262-263.

As to the conclusion that the Supreme Court as well as the State courts
should reach in like situations, Justice Black asserted that "until
Congress has commanded a different 'effect' for divorces granted on a
short sojourn within a State, we should stay our hands. * * * If we
follow that course, North Carolina cannot be permitted to disregard the
Nevada decrees without passing upon the 'faith and credit' which Nevada
itself would give to them under its own 'law or usage.' * * * For in
Nevada, even its Attorney General could not have obtained a cancellation
of the decree * * *." Ibid