Note: This website is intended to serve as an online resource pertaining to drafting and enforcing Tribal protection orders. Note that each Tribe is unique with respect to Tribal constitutions and codes. The reader should consult the specific Tribal constitution and Tribal codes for additional requirements regarding drafting and enforcement of Tribal protection orders.
For easy reference, this page provides information about state laws that require the enforcement of foreign (states and Tribal) protection orders. Note that some states have statutes that mirror the Federal Full Faith and Credit statute.
- Does Federal law (18 USC 2265 (d)2) require a Tribal protection order to be registered with a state as a part of the Federal Full Faith and Credit mandate?
No. 18 USC 2265 (d)(2) states:
(2) No prior registration or filing as prerequisite for enforcement. —
Any protection order that is otherwise consistent with this section shall be accorded full faith and credit, notwithstanding failure to comply with any requirement that the order be registered or filed in the enforcing State, Tribal, or territorial jurisdiction.
- How would I find each state’s Full Faith and Credit statute and other related resources?
- State and Territorial Full Faith and Credit Statutes
- A national compilation of state and territorial full faith and credit statutes, created by the National Center on protection orders and Full Faith and Credit (Updated June 2013)
- WomensLaw has created a website that provides access to all state laws on restraining orders. This site will also indicate if a particular state has adopted the Uniform Interstate Enforcement of Domestic Violence Protection Orders Act discussed below.
- The Uniform Interstate Enforcement of Domestic Violence Protection Orders Act
- In 2000, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) promulgated the Uniform Interstate Enforcement of Domestic-Violence Protection Orders Act to address the interstate enforcement of protective orders arising from a domestic-violence and family-violence context; in 2002, in consultation and cooperation with the S. Department of Justice’s Violence Against Women Office (OVW), the Act was substantively amended to also cover orders arising under an issuing state’s anti-stalking laws. Note that a uniform law is optional for states to adopt. The link above has a map that indicates which states have adopted this Act, but the date of the map is 2002.