SALT LAKE CITY - A county clerk can legally refuse to issue a marriage license for a polygamous union, a federal judge ruled, turning aside the argument that a landmark Supreme Court decision overturning anti-sodomy laws should also be applied to plural marriage.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart on Wednesday rejected the argument that the state's ban on polygamy violates constitutional rights of religion and privacy, saying the state has an interest in protecting monogamous marriage.

The judge emphasized his ruling was about marriage, not personal sexual conduct. He cited cases as far back as an 1878 Supreme Court ruling upholding the polygamy conviction of George Reynolds, personal secretary to Mormon pioneer leader Brigham Young.

The ruling upheld a decision by the Salt Lake County Clerk's Office in December 2003 to refuse a marriage license for a couple in which the man was seeking a second wife. He, his wife and the would-be second wife all joined in the suit, saying plural marriage is a central tenet in their religious beliefs.

Stewart said the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which found that a Texas anti-sodomy law violated the privacy of consenting adults, did not apply to the Utah case.

"Contrary to plaintiffs' assertion, the laws in question here do not preclude their private sexual conduct," Stewart said. "They do preclude the state of Utah from recognizing the marriage ... as a valid marriage under the laws of the state of Utah."

Attorney Brian Barnard said his clients — identified as G. Lee Cook, his wife, D. Cook, and his would-be second wife, J. Bronson — will appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the Supreme Court.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced polygamy in the 19th century but abandoned it when Utah sought statehood. Its prohibition was written into the state's constitution. Today, the Mormon church excommunicates members who advocate polygamy, but there may be as many as 30,000 adherents in the West.

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Put me on wheels and I'll turn tricks.

Clever? Nah, I ran out of that years ago. But if you find this, let me know, k?
"The road goes ever on..." ~ Tolkien

In memory of my friend skip...
Go then, there are other worlds than these

I had already read this in Yahoo's news...I find it interesting that it's almost a "don't ask, don't tell" policy...they don't want to know about your sex life, but, by God, if you flaunt it...

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"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, then let it, and if you have to wait for what you really want, take the time because nobody said that life would be easy. They just promised it would be worth it." ~ Unknown author

>U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart on Wednesday rejected the argument that the state's ban on polygamy violates constitutional rights of religion and privacy, saying the state has an interest in protecting monogamous marriage.


Crapola.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

gekko you may not agree, but here's the issue that happens in sooooo many of the polygamous marriages (at least in Utah) ... the man cannot make enough money to support all the wives and children and so the wives apply for aid in its various forms from the state and claim they don't know who the father is ... or that they are not married (which they aren't by state code but they claim to be so anyway in all other arenas). So in a slightly indirect way, the state does have a very big interest in monogamous marriages being what is acceptable.

I happened to grow up in an area of the west where there were a lot of polygamists not too far away ... I know that in Utah when they prosecute polygamists it has never been for polygamy but about other things such as theft of services from the state as mentioned above, or in harmful treatment of family members who have appealed to the state for them to do so ... those who live in polygamy in the western US for the most part are not prosecuted in great part because they live in close communities or farming type complexes and they are unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove a case.

Interesting points, fzzy. Hadn't heard some of them before. You're just a fountain of wisdom.

(That I did know. )

Lol Db!

Well ................. if I won the Lottery I'd give a whirl I suppose. Hell I'm not crazy enough that I would take a Bunch of wives. Three would be fine.

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I think I could financially support one more husband, if someone wanted to "apply for the position"

Interviews will take place in bed

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Life is too short not to love and be loved....preferably multiple times in one night.

I think men talk to women so they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so they can talk to them. ~ Jay McInerney

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Eudaimonia

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* A Pixie interpretation