Reading about that Republican congressional candidate with the bigamy problem (hat tip: blogenfreude) got me wondering about Big Love. The Henricksons appear to believe that they could go to jail for what they’re doing…but my understanding has always been that you’re only committing bigamy if you legally marry more than one spouse. The Henricksons are all religiously married, but only one of the marriages is legal. So I was wondering: is this actually a felony?
In Utah, the answer is yes:
A person is guilty of bigamy when, knowing he has a husband or wife or knowing the other person has a husband or wife, the person purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person. [emphasis added]
And in case it’s unclear how broad that is, a recent Utah Supreme Court decision upholding the statute (against a freedom-of-religion challenge) upheld the interpretation of ‘purports to marry’ as including purely religious marriage ceremonies with no legal confirmation of the marriage.
I did a quick check in a few other states and as far as I can tell, none of them have comparable language; the bigamy statute in California, for example, bigamy is just defined as ‘marrying’ more than one person. I’m not certain, but Utah may well be unique in this respect.
The reason is obvious; it’s the same reason a prohibition on polygamous marriage is in the state constitution:
No inhabitant of this State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; but polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.
I don’t have any great point to make about any of this. I just thought it was interesting.
[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]
I find the Utah law amausing on a number of levels but primarily because LDS use to practice polygamy and it was really only banned for politcal reasons (so Utah could join the USA.)
But if I am reading this right, since I am married to my husband we cannot have another person in our relationship (in the spiritual way since it is illegal to marry) if he or she is already legally married. But if he or she isn’t its fine (well I suppose some might just consider that adultery.)
This is all so confusing. Whatever happened to keeping the government out of my personal life/relationships. I suppose I should look this up more since it dirrectly affects me I suppose. Thanks for posting about it…
Do you live in Utah?
It seems to me the implications of the Utah statute are much broader than just polygamous marriages; for example, if a couple breaks up, they had better be sure the divorce is final before they ‘cohabit’ with anyone else.
Well, Utah has made an art form of legislating morality. And I feel really sorry for the non-Mormons in the state, since about 80% of the statutes (IIRC) are based on Mormon eclesiastical law.
That’s interesting–I didn’t realize that. It sort of makes sense, though, given the essentially theocratic origins of the state.
Good observation, your ideas are right on.