Barnard contends Utah's anti-polygamy laws violate his clients' constitutionally protected freedom of religion rights. Court papers he filed with the 10th Circuit also cite the controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision of Lawrence vs. Texas, which decriminalized gay sex.

"'Lawrence' is the most recent in a line of Supreme Court cases that have increasingly cordoned off from state invasion a realm of individual privacy grounded in the First Amendment and protected as a Fourteenth Amendment 'liberty' interest," Barnard wrote.

He claims Utah's anti-polygamy laws stigmatize the Cooks and Bronson as criminals because of their religious-based choice of marriage.

"Although polygamy is not accepted by the majority of society, that is insufficient to ban it and make believers into criminals," Barnard wrote.

As someone who lives in a plural community, Fuller said there is a danger of being prosecuted. She pointed to the recent court decisions upholding the criminal conviction of Rodney Holm, a police officer in the polygamous border town of Hildale, Utah.

Holm was convicted of marrying a teenage girl as his third wife. He is a member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, whose leader, Warren Jeffs, is in jail after months on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Jeffs was arrested last month in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas.

Jeffs, 50, is scheduled to appear in 5th District Court in St. George on Wednesday to answer to a pair of charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He is accused of forcing a teenage girl into a polygamous marriage with an older man.

In the Bronson case, Barnard points out his clients are all over 50 years old.

"The issue is more squarely and nicely presented in our case. Consenting mature adults who want to practice what their religion tells them to do," he said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.

The case gives polygamists some hope.

Fuller believes the political winds are changing to a climate more suitable for people who believe — and live — plural marriage.

"I know it's changing. Someday we will have the same rights as everyone else," she said. "This civil rights movement is just in the beginning stages."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com