28 USC §1738 | STATE AND TERRITORIAL STATUTES AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS; FULL FAITH AND CREDIT

The Full Faith and Credit Clause of the of the United States Constitution, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1738, requires federal courts to grant the same full faith and credit to state court judgments that would be given by other courts of that state. Migra v. Warren City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ, 465 U.S. 75, 81, 104 S. Ct. 892, 79 L. Ed. 2d 56 (1984). "Federal Courts have consistently applied res judicata and collateral estoppel to causes of action and issues decided by state courts." Kremer v. Chem. Const. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 467 n. 6, 102 S. Ct. 1883, 72 L. Ed. 2d 262 (1982).

Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 99 (1980), made clear that an exception to § 1738 will not be recognized unless a later statute contains an express or implied partial repeal. There is no claim here that Title VII expressly repealed § 1738; if there has been a partial repeal, it must be implied. "It is, of course, a cardinal principle of statutory construction that repeals by implication are not favored," Radzanower v. Touche Ross Co., 426 U.S. 148, 154 (1976); United States v. United Continental Tuna Corp., 425 U.S. 164, 168 (1976), and whenever possible, statutes should be read consistently. There are, however,

"`two well-settled categories of repeals by implication —

(1) where provisions in the two acts are in irreconcilable conflict, the later act to the extent of the conflict constitutes an implied repeal of the earlier one; and

(2) if the later act covers the whole subject of the earlier one and is clearly intended as a substitute, it will operate similarly as a repeal of the earlier act.

But, in either case, the intention of the legislature to repeal must be clear and manifest . . . .'" Radzanower v. Touche Ross Co., supra, at 154, quoting Posadas v. National City Bank, 296 U.S. 497, 503 (1936).