In the case of May v. Anderson in 1952, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a Wisconsin court could not enforce an Ohio custody decree without violating due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The case involved two parents who were divorced in Ohio and had three minor children. The mother moved to Wisconsin with her children and refused to return them to their father in Ohio despite an existing custody order from an Ohio court granting him visitation rights. When he filed for enforcement of his visitation rights, a Wisconsin court denied his request on grounds that it was not bound by the decision of another state's courts when determining what is best for a child residing within its jurisdiction. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court sided with this view stating that full faith and credit does not require one state’s courts to mechanically accept judgments rendered by courts from other states if doing so would violate principles of fundamental fairness.

In the dissenting opinion for May v. Anderson, Justice Jackson argued that the majority's decision to deny a mother custody of her children based on Ohio law was an infringement upon Wisconsin's jurisdiction and its ability to protect its domiciled citizens. He contended that this ruling violated full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, which requires states to respect each other’s laws and judicial decisions. Furthermore, he expressed concern about how such a precedent could affect future cases involving child custody disputes across state lines. According to him, it would be more appropriate if these matters were settled by cooperative action among states rather than through unilateral decisions made by one state court without considering another state’s interests or welfare of involved parties.