Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Interstate Recognition of Licenses:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_15-2007_07_21.shtml#1184739962
A reader asks:
Could you possibly cover the subject of states recognizing other
state licenses? I have a driver's license from state A that state B
must recognize. I have a marriage license from state A that state B
must recognize. I have a carry license from state A that state B
refuses to recognize. Why? How can this be changed?
The Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution generally
requires states to recognize out-of-state court judgments. There is,
if I recall correctly, some authority (though not completely clear)
that a state must also recognize out-of-state marriages.
But the Constitution otherwise leaves each state with the authority to
decide who is licensed to do what within that state. Congress may in
many situations preempt such licensing with federal legislation. If
the activity is constitutionally protected, a state by definition may
not interfere with it through a discretionary licensing scheme -- a
state may not, for instance, require a discretionary license to
publish newspapers (though it may sometimes require speakers to get
licenses that must be issued under content-neutral conditions, for
instance parade permits). And in some situations, if the activity is
interstate and a licensing requirement will gravely and without
adequate justification burden the activity, the state rule may violate
the dormant Commerce Clause. But those are exceptions; the rule is
that a state decides for itself who is licensed to do things there.
Thus, a state has no constitutional obligation to recognize driver's
licenses from other states. I'm not sure whether there's some federal
law mandating such recognition, or whether states just do it as a
matter of "comity," which is to say out of a desire to work well with
other states (and to get reciprocity for their own citizens). But in
any event, such recognition was a democratic choice, not a
constitutional command. Likewise, states can often do refuse to
recognize out-of-state professional licenses, such as licenses to
practice law or medicine.
So how can one get one's licensed recognized in another state? Well,
if courts conclude that there's a constitutional right not just to own
a gun but to carry one on one's person -- which a very few state
courts have, some as to a right to carry open and one as to a right to
carry concealed -- then the question will become moot: One then
wouldn't need a license to carry concealed (or at least would be
categorically entitled to such a license upon showing that one is a
law-abiding adult and perhaps paying a nominal fee).
But if that doesn't happen, then the answer to "How can this be
changed?" is through state-by-state legislation, and possibly also
federal legislation (for instance, legislation conditioning various
kinds of funding on a state's willingness to recognize out-of-state
licenses). Not very likely at the federal level, I realize, but my
understanding is that many states have indeed provided for recognition
of out-of-state licenses, especially if the other state reciprocally
recognizes such licenses.
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