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Some states' statutes refer to polygamy while others use the bigamy term. Criminal sentences differ widely. Prosecutions for either violation are extremely rare. [citation needed] Polygamy is a practice difficult to define since it virtually never occurs in the context of legal licensing. Given that Mormon polygamists migrated to the Rocky ...
United States: Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states, [100] De facto polygamy is illegal under federal law, the Edmunds Act. Utah, in February 2020, reduced polygamy to the status of a traffic ticket; [101] [102] nevertheless recognizing that polygamous unions are illegal under the Constitution of Utah. [103]
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed the decision on April 11, 2016 [62] On January 23, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear arguments from the husband and four wives who star in the television show Sister Wives, letting stand a lower court ruling that kept polygamy a crime in Utah. [63]
The Edmunds Act, also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882, [1] is a United States federal statute, signed into law on March 23, 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur, declaring polygamy a felony in federal territories, punishable by "a fine of not more than five hundred dollars and by imprisonment for a term of not more than five years". [2]
Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1878), was a Supreme Court of the United States case which held that religious duty was not a defense to a criminal indictment. [1] Reynolds was the first Supreme Court opinion to address the First Amendment's protection of religious liberties, impartial juries and the Confrontation Clauses of the Sixth ...
United States declared that polygamy was not protected by the Constitution, based on the longstanding legal principle that "laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices." [119]
Chatwin v. United States, 326 U.S. 455 (1946) — underaged polygamous marriage with consent not prosecutable under the Federal Kidnapping Act; Cleveland v. United States, 329 U.S. 14 (1946) — polygamous marriage an "immoral purpose" under the Mann Act; Musser v. Utah, 333 U.S. 95 (1948) — polygamy not religious free speech
Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333 (1890), was a United States Supreme Court case affirming, by a 9–0 vote, that federal laws against polygamy did not conflict with the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.