U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups released his final decision on Wednesday striking down portions of Utah’s laws that criminalize polygamous cohabitation.
The plaintiff, Kody Brown, has four partners named Robyn, Janelle, Christine, and Meri, and all of them are members of the Apostolic United Brethren Church. They claimed that the Utah ban on their polygamous cohabitation restricted them from their freedom of religion.
The Apostolic United Brethren Church, which is a fundamentalist offshoot sect of Mormonism, continued the practice of polygamy despite the fact that polygamous marriage had been outlawed in the U.S. in 1890. Fundamentalist Mormons who practice polygamy marry one woman legally, and the following relationships with other partners are considered spiritual unions. Mainstream Mormon churches, however, enforce a strict ban on practicing polygamy.
Utah’s laws not only ban people from polygamous marriage relationships, but also from polygamous relationships, such as being married to one person but also living with several partners. Judge Waddoups ruled that these portions are unconstitutional, saying that they violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
“It is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed that Utah Code …. is facially unconstitutional in that phrase ‘or cohabits with another person’ is a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and is without a rational basis under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; to preserve the integrity of the Statute, as enacted by the Utah State Legislature, the Court hereby severs the phrase ‘or cohabits with another person,’” Judge Waddoups wrote in the ruling.
“Homosexuals and polygamists do have a common interest, the right to be left alone as consenting adults,” Jonathan Turley, Kody Brown’s lawyer, said. “There is no spectrum of private consensual relations. There is just a right of privacy that protects all people so long as they do not harm others.”
Utah’s the attorney general Sean Reyes said that he would appeal the decision.
Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law, believed that the decision would not be upheld if it is indeed tried at an appeals court.
