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A new law that went into effect this week in Utah reduces penalties for polygamy in some cases, making it a misdemeanor, similar to a traffic ticket, rather than a punishable crime.

Is Polygamy Legal In America

Under Senate Bill 102, Gary R. Herbert went into effect in March and went into effect Tuesday. Married people can have other partners at the same time without facing criminal charges, as long as the new partner volunteers to join the union.

Gta’s Secret World Of Polygamy

However, polygamy remains a crime if it is caused by intimidation, fraud, coercion, or abuse. A second-degree felony carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Barring other factors, polygamy is now a misdemeanor and can result in fines of up to $750 and community service.

When the bill was approved by the state Legislature in February, it sparked controversy over polygamy in Utah, which has the highest number of polygamists.

The Sound Choices Coalition, which opposes forced polygamy, criticized the move as a “hateful” move that “endorses modern sexual slavery”.

“Most of the people living in these essentially polygamous groups and families are treated like property, forced to work without pay, sold as girls, forced into unwanted sex, and left with many children they cannot care for. children,” the group said. The statement also includes women who have escaped polygamy.

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Please wait while we confirm your access. If you are in reader mode, sign out and sign in to your Times girlfriend account or subscribe to Times for all. A federal judge has ruled in favor of so-called polygamous families, ruling that key parts of Utah’s anti-polygamy law are unconstitutional. reality show.

All 50 states have anti-infidelity laws, prohibiting multiple marriage licenses, but Utah’s law goes even further, allowing married people to “marry or cohabit with another person.” If the person wishes to do so, he or she is guilty.

But Judge Clark Wadpeth of the U.S. District Court for Utah ruled late Friday that the law’s “spouse” clause is unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee religious freedom and due process rights. It was ruled that. Page Order Currently, polygamy is only criminalized in the literal sense, by obtaining multiple marriage licenses.

The ruling follows a long-running lawsuit brought by Kody Brown, star of the TLC reality show “The Nurse Wives,” which chronicled the lives of Brown, his four wives, and their 17 children. It continues. The Brown family is members of the Apostolic United Brethren Church, a fundamentalist church that shares historical roots with Mormonism and believes polygamy is a fundamental religious practice.

Legality Of Polygamy In The World

The Brown family does not have many marriage licenses, with only one marriage license registered between Kody Brown and his wife Mary.

“This ruling allows families like the Browns to be pluralistic and legal in Utah,” their attorney Jonathan Turley said in a post on his website. Stated.

Turley said the Browns came to the attention of Utah officials because of the television series. Brown filed suit in July 2011 and fled Utah to Nevada under threat of prosecution. Bigamy in Utah is punishable by up to five years in prison.

“We know many people do not accept extended families, but this is our family and it is based on our faith,” he said in a statement. “Just as we respect the personal and religious choices of other families, in time all of our neighbors and citizens will respect our choices as members of this great nation of diverse faiths and beliefs. I hope so.”

Sister Wives’: Timeline Of The Collapse Of Kody Brown’s Marriages

“The court has considered, examined, and reconsidered the many legal, practical, ethical, and moral considerations and implications of today’s decision, and the correct outcome of this matter will not be determined in many months,” he said. “This has weighed heavily on the court,” he said.

Ultimately, he ruled that the law’s language was unconstitutional because of its ambiguity and its “intentional impact on private religious coexistence,” and that it violated the First Amendment right to free expression of religion. I put it down.

Badopus said that while “polygamy” is not a fundamental right, what was at issue in Brown’s case was “religious cohabitation” between consenting adults or “polygamy similar to marriage in its intimacy.” “However, it is a personal relationship that does not claim legal authority.” Therefore, the language of the law violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which is meant to guarantee freedom.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) fled to the Utah area in the 18th century due to religious persecution. Although the mainstream church abandoned polygamy in the 1890s when Utah sought statehood, some denominations seceded and continued to maintain polygamy as a cornerstone of their religion. In 2011, Warren Jeffs, leader of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl. He forced their “spiritual wives”. What he was not charged with was polygamy (marrying multiple people at the same time), which was a crime in Utah at the time. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, every U.S. state “has laws prohibiting marriage while already married to another person.”

Polygamy In America: Between Society, Law, And Gender

In 1879, polygamy was illegal, but the US position was reversed in Reynolds v. Reynolds v. Johnson. This was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

George Reynolds, a Mormon living in Utah, was fined $500 and sentenced to two years at hard labor for violating anti-bigamy laws. (“Polygamy” is the act of marrying someone while legally married to another person, and is often used in laws prohibiting polygamy. Polygamy is ambiguous because Illegal. Origin – with can also be used interchangeably.)

Reynolds, supported by other Mormon polygamists, fought a lawsuit arguing that polygamy was protected by the First Amendment. he lost

More recently, polygamists have argued that the early case of Roe v. Roe: Wade (decided in 1973 and overturned in June 2022) and Lawrence v. Texas protect polygamous marriages based on decisions that emphasize the right to privacy.

Petition · Legalize Polygamy In The Usa · Change.org

The Brown family of Utah won a federal lawsuit challenging Utah’s anti-polygamy law in 2013. This comes after several states passed laws allowing same-sex marriage, citing anti-sex laws as infringing on privacy and religious freedom. However, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the case in 2016. He explained that Kody Brown and his four wives, Mary, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown, are not at risk of prosecution because Utah has a policy that only criminalizes polygamy. Other crimes (In 2012, Utah County Attorney Jeff Bowman said he would only prosecute polygamous adults if there is suspicion of violence, abuse, or fraud.) Polygamy is currently protected by the federal government. It has not been.

Although polygamy is illegal in most countries of the world, it is practiced by about 2% of the population. Around the world, some Islamic sects (including in the United States) illegally practice polygamy, and countries where polygamy is prohibited, such as India and Nigeria, have banned such religious forms of polygamy. There are exceptions to federal law that apply. . In some countries, rules regarding polygamy are controlled by law and religious guidance, but marriage is usually regulated by the state.

In 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), or Mormon Church, renounced polygamy. This led to the formation of FLDS, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Messiah of Latter-day Saints, which continues to practice today.

Today, mainstream Latter-day Saint doctors seem to have a stronger aversion to polygamy than other Americans. Frank Newport told Gallup in 2020 that Americans who identify as Mormons surveyed since 2003 by a global analytics firm are “more likely than average of the sample to say polygamy is morally acceptable.” “Slightly lower than the value.”

What Is Polygamy?

From a social perspective, polygamy has always been very unpopular in America. But opinions seem to be changing.

A record number of Americans (23%) believe polygamy is “morally acceptable,” according to the 2022 Gallup Values ​​and Beliefs Survey. Although not unanimous, this figure is up from 20% in 2020, 16% in 2015 and 5% in 2006, and is the lowest since the survey began in 2003. or here (interestingly, only 9 percent of respondents in 2022 found infidelity to be morally acceptable cohabitation. Many Americans who accept polygamy seems to be “faithful” when it comes to polygamy, given that it is a traditional monogamous marriage.)

Casey E. Faucon, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, has written about polygamy in Utah Law Review, Harvard Law and Policy Review, and Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy. He believes Americans are more accepting of polygamy.

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