Draper v. Burke
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
881 N.E.2d 122 (2008)
A Massachusetts couple divorced in Oregon; the wife (plaintiff) and children then returned to Massachusetts, and the husband (defendant) moved to Idaho. The Oregon divorce decree set child support but didn't specify how college expenses would be split, though the parties had intended to share those costs. When the wife sued in Massachusetts to make the husband contribute to college expenses, the Massachusetts court ordered him to reimburse half of what she'd already paid and cover 40% going forward. He appealed, arguing Massachusetts's Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) barred the state's courts from hearing the matter at all, since neither parent lived in the state that issued the original order and he, the nonresident, hadn't brought the modification petition.
Whether the federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act preempts Massachusetts's UIFSA where the federal law would permit a Massachusetts court to hear a child-support modification that the state UIFSA prohibits.