"Polygamy is the next marriage-rights frontier"

reviewjournal.com

"After the Supreme Court’s landmark gay marriage decision, can a constitutional right to plural marriage be far behind?

It seemed that way in 2013, when a federal district court in Utah followed the Supreme Court ruling by striking down part of the state’s bigamy law in a case involving the family featured in the television show 'Sister Wives.'

But last week a federal appeals court reversed the decision. It said that the case was moot because Utah prosecutors had shelved prosecution of the Sister Wives family and announced a new policy to prosecute polygamists only if they were also suspected of fraud or abuse.

The decision is a sign that the federal courts would like polygamy prosecutions to go away on their own without having to declare a fundamental constitutional right to marry more than one person.

The plaintiffs in the original case are Kody Brown; his legal wife, Meri Brown; and their three “sister wives,” Janelle Brown, Christine Brown and Robyn Sullivan. All belong to the Apostolic United Brethren Church, a group that accepts the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s prophecy, including his encouragement of plural marriage."