Suit Challenges Constitutionality of Utah Ban on Polygamy

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | January 12, 2004 | Alexandria Sage

[mrobison]

SALT LAKE CITY — A leading civil rights attorney prepared Monday to file a federal lawsuit challenging Utah’s ban on polygamy, citing the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas sodomy law.

The suit says Salt Lake County clerks refused a marriage license to plaintiffs G. Lee Cook, an adult male, and J. Bronson, an adult female, because Cook was already married to D. Cook. That woman had given her consent to the additional marriage.

In denying the marriage license, the county violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to practice their religion, attorney Brian Barnard says in the suit.

The suit, an advance copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not mention what faith the plaintiffs observe, except to say polygamy is a ‘‘sincere and deeply held religious major tenet.’’

The suit argues that the Supreme Court ruling last June in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down laws criminalizing gay sex, protects the defendants’ privacy in intimate matters.

Polygamy, a felony under Utah law, was a part of the early beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but was abandoned more than a century ago as the territory sought statehood.

The Utah Constitution bans polygamy and the Mormon church now excommunicates those who advocate it, but it is believed that thousands in Utah continue the practice.

[Eris]

1) Because animals can't give consent. They don't have rights, but they are deserving of certain protections from cruelty.

2) Because it doesn't follow that if A) the standard is consenting adults that B) the age of consent should be lowered. Total non-sequitur.

[Lucas McCain]

There is a strong correlation between polygyny (having more than one wife at a time) and homosexual behavior. The best known pattern is in the Arab world in which rich and powerful men have up to four legal wives plus concubines. It makes it impossible for many young men to find nubile women. Even though homosexual behavior is severely penalized by Islam, homosexual behavior is rampant in many Muslim areas.

[glock rocks]

Well, we jumped through these hoops to get into the union...


Utah State Constitution

Article XXIV, Section 2. [Territorial laws continued.]

All laws of the Territory of Utah now in force, not repugnant to this Constitution, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitations, or are altered or repealed by the Legislature. The act of the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, entitled, "An Act to punish polygamy and other kindred offenses," approved February 4th, A.D. 1892, in so far as the same defines and imposes penalties for polygamy, is hereby declared to be in force in the State of Utah.

[Eris]

I'm still not seeing why the law should be involved.

[Mason]

Yes, no, yes (assuming parties are over 18) and no.

Justice O'Connor! How nice to see you! Thank God you brought the stone tablets, because no earthly force could figure this out.

[Eris]

Unable to form a relevant response, eh?

Don't worry - no one is surprised.

[AdamSelene235]

There is a strong correlation between polygyny (having more than one wife at a time) and homosexual behavior.

Actually, the correlation is between non-companionate marriage and homosexuality.

If the costs of having a wife are low, a greater portion of the homosexual spectrum will take them.

[LPM1888]

Well, suppose you are already hitched to Britney and Christina, then

you find out about young Stacie Orrico... You need legal options...

And a good therapist, a ringmaster, and plenty of vitamin V.

[mrobison]

I know..

We should seek reparations for all those monogamous years.

:)

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Between this post and some others right now current on FreeRepublic breaking news, I feel like we are truly living in the times of the Romans. Caligula anyone?

[StonyBurk]

The unfolding of th einterpretation of the Law void of
any culpability of those entrusted with interpretation-
the last verse of the Book of Judges Applied to todays
america would read "In those days there was no law in America ,and everyman,woman, and those angry at the way God
Created them did their own thing."Laws human cannot contradict Divine Law else they are ill made.(Loose translation of John Locke as he reflected Blackstone-when
we were yet Americans and men understood the rule of law.

[mrobison]

Hey, Mod Squad:

Thanks for setting us back up at Breaking News. You guys rock.

[sully777]

Why a man wants a mistress, or mistresses above and beyond his wife is equally puzzling.

Short-term sexual fantasy is a powerful motivator but a dismal longterm solution to character development. Nothing positive in the long-term is produced by both practices of polygamy or looseness except PMS daily not monthly and maybe some type of VD--now there are two a great incentives!

One need only to look at the French to know that licentiousness leads to eternal defeat and surrender in the family, society, and the world!

[doug from upland]

You watch. Someone is going to want to marry a farm animal. No, it's not so ridiculous. If marriage has been defined down, what right do others have to tell him that he can't marry Ms. Sheep.?

[Zack Nguyen]

I know we are getting really disgusting here, but while it is true that an animal can't give consent in the general sense, can we honestly say (by that standard) that the animal is being subject to cruel behavior? But your point about consent is taken, I suppose, but isn't it odd that we will protect the right of animals not to be degraded, but we don't seem to care if people are degraded through prositution or sodomy? (IMHO, giving "consent" doesn't mean an activity has dignity.)

How can you define what is an "adult" and what is not? If the only requirement is that consent be given by a human being capable of making a rational decision, a 13 year old can give consent. Possibly even younger than that.

And we haven't even gotten into prostitution. The point I am trying to make here is that there needs to be another criteria other than "It sounded okay to me" when we decide what is proper behavior and what should be regulated.

[AdamSelene235]

There is a strong correlation between polygyny (having more than one wife at a time) and homosexual behavior. The best known pattern is in the Arab world in which rich and powerful men have up to four legal wives plus concubines.

Of course, if rich men horde women this increases the search costs for male heterosexuals leading to a greater incidence of opportunistic homosexuality and heterosexual prostitution for that matter. OTOH, low search costs for males isn't a good thing either. In racial groups with a high incidence of imprisonment of males, the remaining males find their search costs to be quite low and tend to hop from female to female.

Not that the law should have anything to do with this.

[sully777]

Believe I saw Gene Wilder in love with a sheep in Woody Allen's movie "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask." At the end of the vignette Wilder is on skid row drinking Woolite because the sheep left him to go back to Greece.

Woody Allen made the movie? I know, go figure!

[templar]

This could get really interesting if he wins on religious grounds. I understand, possibly erroneously, that under Islam a marriage can be arranged for a temporary period (as little as an hour or so) with the payment of a 'dowry' of some sort involved in the arrangement. A lot of street walkers might decide to become Islamic in a hurry, and their prospective husbands as well.

[SunStar]

Why a man would want more than one wife at a time dwelves into sanity issues, IMO.

The purpose is to ensure that an individual Mormon family is very large, with 15+ children per adult male.

[muawiyah]

Regarding polygamous societies, the guys who are left in the lurch do not all turn to homosexuality. Rather, they turn to prostitution.

In Saudi it is customary for a woman over the course of a lifetime to have married several different men (one at a time of course), so it's not really prostitution. Saddam Hussein's mother, in Iraq, had had 5 different husbands, and in neighborhing Iran they have this interesting deal called a "temporary marriage"!

The practice of two or more poor men marrying one woman is known in India as well (where it's going to become very, very common now that the Hindus are using abortion to exterminate their female component)