Williams v. State of North Carolina [I]

Mr. Williams and Ms. Hendrix (defendants), each married to someone else and living in North Carolina, traveled to Nevada, established the required six-week residency, and obtained divorces from their absent spouses using substituted service; the spouses never appeared. They then married each other in Nevada and returned to North Carolina, which refused to recognize the Nevada decrees and prosecuted them for bigamy. They were convicted, and the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed, relying on Haddock v. Haddock. They petitioned the United States Supreme Court for certiorari.

Whether a state may refuse to recognize a sister state's divorce decree, rendered after proceedings consistent with due process, on the ground that recognition offends its public policy.