Felix Frankfurter

“ But a constitutional issue cannot be, and is not, avoided when a ruling is made that necessarily-and not the less because it does so impliedly-includes it. To what end must the Supreme Court of North Carolina justify its determination that the child should remain with her grandfather, by finding that there has been a change from the conditions under which the New York decree was rendered, unless in default of such a justification that court must be held to have disregarded its constitutional duty to give full faith and credit to the New York decree? ”

“ At stake in this case is the welfare of a child. More immediately the question before us is what restriction, if any, does the Constitution of the United States impose on a state court when it is determining the custody of a child before it. ”

“ Whatever force such a decree might have in New York, the Federal Constitution at all events does not require its blind acceptance elsewhere. The minimum nexus between court and child that must exist before the court's award of the child's custody should carry and authority is that the court should have been in a position adequately to inform itself regarding the needs and desires of the child, of what is in the child's best interests. ”