Utah Upholds Bigamy Ban
by TChris
Polygamy has been in the news lately, perhaps because the HBO series Big Love has focused public attention on the practice. Polygamist Warren Jeffs made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, and Sean Hannity wonders whether efforts to capture him will lead to a Waco-style standoff. Polygamist leader Winston Blackmore, who reportedly has 28 wives, contends that all polygamists aren't as bad as Jeffs, and complains that he's being persecuted by Canadian authorities.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court of Utah ruled Tuesday (pdf) that the state's prohibition of bigamy is constitutional. The decision, which arose in the case of a former police officer who married two sisters, echoes a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1878 (pdf) upholding Utah's law against a claim that the prohibition infringed on the free exercise of religion.
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