Last week in Utah, the family starring in TLC’s “Sister Wives” program filed a challenge to that state’s criminal law against bigamy.
The Mormon Church famously renounced polygamy in 1890 in exchange for Utah’s statehood. Ever since then, polygamists have tiptoed around the laws with what Kody Brown, the husband on “Sister Wives” calls their “spiritual marriage.”
Yesterday the legal scholar (and blogger) Jonathan Turley wrote an op-ed in the New York Times arguing that the Browns’ marriage should be legalized and that anti-polygamy laws violate Americans’ right to privacy. He also makes the point that horror stories about abuse of sister wives and neglect of teenage boys who are discarded by their fathers is hardly a reason to punish all polygamists.
Others have opposed polygamy on the grounds that, while the Browns believe in the right of women to divorce or leave such unions, some polygamous families involve the abuse or domination of women. Of course, the government should prosecute abuse wherever it is found. But there is nothing uniquely abusive about consenting polygamous relationships. It is no more fair to prosecute the Browns because of abuse in other polygamous families than it would be to hold a conventional family liable for the hundreds of thousands of domestic violence cases each year in monogamous families.
I know most people find Mormonism to be somewhere between goofy, creepy or just plain insane, but does that mean we shouldn’t allow people to enter into marital arrangements that are outside our own norms? I was actually somewhat surprised that Turley didn’t mention the issue of gay marriage. Does the growing acceptance of that new form of marriage make acceptance of polygamy more likely? I think so.
Note: Turley is actually representing the Browns in court. Here’s the blog post he wrote last week when the case was filed.
