FLDS cases may help end polygamy ban

Recent bigamy indictments handed down by a Texas grand jury could be the seeds for a case that could eventually find itself before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the ban on polygamy, a lawyer for the Fundamentalist LDS Church said.

"I think the beginnings of that case are being filed in Texas right now," Rod Parker said during a panel discussion last week at the annual Utah State History Conference.

Parker appeared alongside Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff for a discussion on "Polygamy and the Law," discussing polygamy-related prosecutions and the recent raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch. Past attempts to overturn the polygamy ban have failed, some because they involve underage marriages — which could still cloud the issue.

"One of the interests the state has in prohibiting polygamy is this ... protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitation and abuse and I'm quoting: 'The practice of polygamy in particular often coincides with crimes targeting women and children,"' Shurtleff said, quoting from a Utah Supreme Court opinion that struck down a recent challenge to overturn a bigamy conviction.

Six people, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, were indicted by a grand jury in Eldorado, Texas, investigating crimes stemming from the April raid on the YFZ Ranch. Jeffs, Merril Leroy Jessop and Raymond Jessop were indicted on bigamy charges, while others face charges of sexual assault of a child.

Brigham Young University law professor Fredrick Gedicks questioned why polygamy itself remains criminalized, noting there are other groups more dangerous to conventional social values than polygamists.

"We do not punish membership in groups, we punish behavior," he said. "So if there are crimes occurring in polygamous society, then prosecute the crimes. Don't criminalize the society."

For his part, Shurtleff said Utah has been careful to prosecute bigamy only in cases where there are other crimes occurring. When pushing a bill through the Legislature aimed at child bride marriages, Shurtleff supported reducing bigamy among consenting adults to a misdemeanor.

"I couldn't get support from other prosecutors and had to take that part out of the bill," he said.

As the discussion turned to the April raid on the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion Ranch, Shurtleff and Parker found themselves in rare agreement over how the situation was handled.

"That raid in Texas was precipitated by misinformation; it was precipitated by a buildup of prejudice," Parker said. "It didn't just happen because they got this phony phone call and went in there. There was a whole lot of prejudice that was built up there, partly about fundamentalists and polygamy."