Holm had maintained that he never sought a legal marriage with Stubbs, knowing it would violate state law. But the justices concluded that Holm had "purported to be married" to Stubbs by the nature of their wedding ceremony and their relationship.

Durham countered that such an interpretation creates two different definitions of marriage under Utah law. She noted the Utah Legislature's intent under Amendment 3, which states, "Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman."

Durham also objected to allowing the criminalization of those who undertake unions outside of the law. "I believe that in doing so the (bigamy) statute oversteps lines protecting the free exercise of religion and the privacy of intimate, personal relationships between consenting adults," she wrote.

In an opinion supporting the majority, Justice Ronald Nehring countered that Utah's Constitution specifically bans polygamy and that the dissenting opinion overlooked historic events that led to that ban.

Nehring also noted the politically perilous task of crafting an opinion in this case. "I also suspect that I have not been alone in speculating what the consequences might be were the highest court in the state of Utah to be the first in the nation to proclaim that polygamy enjoys constitutional protection," Nehring wrote. But he added, "I do not intend to suggest that the majority opinion in any way was shaped by the fears of a public backlash against sanctioning polygamy."

Assistant Utah Attorney General Laura DuPaix said the ruling has preserved an important tool for prosecutors. She stressed that the Attorney General's Office was going to continue to focus on polygamist marriages involving minors.

"This lays to rest once and for all many of the legal claims polygamists raise," DuPaix said. Those include Holm's claims that his relationships were protected under religious freedom and that he was not legally married to Stubbs.

"This was a marriage in every sense of the word," DuPaix said. "It walked like a marriage, it talked like a marriage, it sounded like a marriage. There was a wedding dress and there was a wedding ceremony, presided by Warren Jeffs."

The ruling comes at a time when Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, is a fugitive and on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He is charged in Utah and Arizona with arranging polygamous marriages between teenage girls and older men. Holm is a member of the FLDS Church.

Parker, Holm's lawyer, said the ruling makes outcasts of thousands of polygamists living in Utah.

"Those people, I think, deserve to be treated as full members of society," he said. "By not doing that, we create great social problems."