Cavallari v. Martin

The simple question raised by this case requires the Court to confront the legal jigsaw puzzle of state and federal statutes applicable to the interstate enforcement of child support orders. At issue is a decree, originally entered by a New York court pursuant to that state’s law, allocating parental rights and responsibilities between a father and a mother who each subsequently moved to Vermont. Although the decree is silent on the issue, New York law requires the noncustodial parent to pay child support until the child’s twenty-first birthday. We must decide whether our family court was…