Federal appeals court dismisses challenge to Utah polygamy ban News
Federal appeals court dismisses challenge to Utah polygamy ban

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website] on Monday threw out a constitutional challenge [opinion, PDF] to Utah’s anti-bigamy laws [text]. The lawsuit was brought in 2011 by the family from TLC’s reality TV show Sister Wives [media website] after their polygamous relationship was threatened by a county prosecutor under the state’s bigamy law. The court determined that because the Utah County Attorney’s Office had adopted a policy under which the family was under no threat of prosecution, the suit was therefore moot. The appeals court remanded the case to the district court and ordered them to dismiss the suit without prejudice.

In 2014 a judge for the US District Court for the District of Utah [official website] refused to dismiss the case as moot and proceeded to the merits, striking down [JURIST report] portions of Utah’s anti-bigamy statute. While polygamy is recognized in most of Africa and the Middle East, it is illegal in most of North and South America, Europe and China. In 2005 the US District Court for the District of Utah rejected a similar lawsuit [JURIST report] brought against Utah’s Anti-Bigamy Statute, reaffirming the 1879 US Supreme Court case Reynolds v. United States [text], which upheld a conviction under an anti-polygamy law as constitutional.

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