Federal Judge Allows Polygamy in Utah

Law professor Ruthann Robson reports:

In a 91 page  opinion in Brown v. Buhman,  federal district judge Clark Waddoups has concluded that Utah's anti-bigamy statute is partially unconstitutional.  ... 

The judge's scholarly opinion includes a discussion of Edward Said's groundbreaking book Orientalism as a critique of the well-known passage in the United States Supreme Court’s 1879 decision in Reynolds v. United States upholding the criminalization of polygamy by reasoning, in part, that "Polygamy has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe, and, until the establishment of the Mormon Church, was almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and of African people." ... 

However, the judge did find that "the cohabitation prong does not survive rational basis review under the substantive due process analysis."  (more...)

Federal Judge Allows Polygamy in Utah

Commentary:

Moral Mayhem Multiplied—Now, It’s Polygamy’s Turn