"Sister Wives" clan challenging anti-bigamy law

Kody Brown poses with his wives (from left: Janelle, Christine, Meri and Robyn) in a promotional photo for TLC's reality TV show, "Sister Wives." / AP/TLC, Bryant Livingston

SALT LAKE CITY — A polygamous family made famous by the reality TV show "Sister Wives" plans to challenge the Utah bigamy law that makes their lifestyle illegal, a Washington-based attorney said Tuesday.

In an email to The Associated Press, attorney Jonathan Turley said he will file the lawsuit challenging Utah's bigamy law in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Turley represents Kody Brown and his four wives, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn. Brown is only legally married to Meri Brown.

Originally from Lehi, the Browns, who have 16 children, has been featured on the TLC reality show since last fall. They moved out of Utah to Nevada in January after police and Utah County prosecutors launched a bigamy investigation. No charges were ever filed.

The Browns practice polygamy as part of their religious beliefs.

Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah. A person can be found guilty of bigamy through cohabitation, not just legal marriage contracts.

In a statement posted on his blog, Turley said the lawsuit will challenge Utah's right to prosecute people for their private relationships.

"We are not demanding the recognition of polygamous marriage. We are only challenging the right of the state to prosecute people for their private relations and demanding equal treatment with other citizens in living their lives according to their own beliefs," the statement reads.

According to the statement, the lawsuit seeks to protect a person's right to be left alone.

"In that sense, it is a challenge designed to benefit not just polygamists but all citizens who wish to live their lives according to their own values — even if those values run counter to those of the majority in the state," Turley wrote.

Turley said he believes the case represents the "strongest factual and legal basis for a challenge to the criminalization of polygamy" ever filed in the federal courts.

Utah has not prosecuted a polygamist for bigamy since 2001. Tom Green, who was married to five women and drew the attention of Utah authorities after promoting his lifestyle on national TV talk shows, was convicted on bigamy, criminal nonsupport and child rape charges. He spent six years in prison and was released in 2007.

Polygamy in Utah and across the Intermountain West is a legacy of the early teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormons abandoned the practice of plural marriage in the 1890s as a condition of Utah's statehood.

An estimated 38,000 self-described Mormon fundamentalists continue the practice, believing it brings exaltation in heaven. Most keep their way of life a secret out of fear of prosecution, although over the past 10 years an advocacy group made up mostly polygamous women has worked to educate the public and state agencies in Utah and Arizona about the culture.

The Browns have long said they believed making their life public on cable television was a risk worth taking if it helped advance the broader understanding of plural families. The lawsuit appears to be an extension of that belief.

"There are tens of thousands of plural families in Utah and other states. We are one of those families. We only wish to live our private lives according our beliefs," Kody Brown said in a statement released through Turley. "While we understand that this may be a long struggle in court, it has already been a long struggle for my family and other plural families to end the stereotypes and unfair treatment given consensual polygamy."

[swanman823]

This is a door that legalizing gay marriage will open. Certainly if gay marriage is legalized, then polygamy must also be legalized. Polygamy has been legal, practiced and accepted since Ancient Egypt, throughout history, and is still legal, accepted, and practiced in many countries and religions today. Muslims can have up to four wives and polygamy is practiced if not legal throughout much of Southern China, and legal in many South Asian and African countries. Not to mention practiced in much of Utah.

In fact Obama's father, grandfather and great grandfather were all polygamists. Romney has polygamists in his family tree also. Is there anyone who defends gay marriage that will not also defend polygamy?

[pattiw515]

I hope the Browns succeed. I am all for religious freedom. Good Luck Brown family! My prayers are with you!

[Sanjivbee]

Turley's argument is a good one. There's no necessary hurt or injury here, and the law doesn't frown on a man having multiple partners with whom he fathers children - the crime is calling these partners "wives" rather than "mistresses". At it's limit, it's a law against vocabulary. And with the power of Lawrence vs Texas, it ought to go.

But let's not be fooled that polygamy is represented by the Brown family, or the media-friendly Dargers or the fictional Henricksons. It's also Paul Kingston, Jim Harmston, Warren Jeffs and Lamoine Jensen. This is a subculture of deep secrecy and tyrannical prophets, a world in which young girls are forced into marriages with older men, in which child labor is common, as is sexual abuse, in which the cliches that we hear are cliches for a reason - they are true.

Decriminalization will likely not happen, but it would afford an opportunity for this shadowy subculture of cults and self-declared messiahs to open its doors to the outside world. Fear of "the other" has been used within these cults to oppress and enslave its members. Decriminaliation would shine some light. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

For the truth about modern polygamy in Utah, read this:

Secrets & Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy (Soft Skull).

http://******/hqzdR0

[rrozsa]

Wow, what an excellent comment. Ever since I read Ann Eliza Young's book (Wife No. 19), which I downloaded in PDF form, I have felt strongly that polygamy is inherently denegrading toward women, heavenly exaltation notwithstanding.

That said, I believe that they should have the right to live the way they choose. By merely decriminalizing the practice, the state can still retain the laws that make polygamist relationships not legally recognized so it would be a compromise that everyone could (and should) be able to live with.

[documemts]

The Mormons get to be polygamous when the LDS church admits and is prosecuted for Mountain Meadows. Until then the men will just have to hobble along with one wife each.

[mkrafft1]

Has someone already mentioned the obvious? If this flys how about gay polygamous marriage , Bob and Fred and Barry and Francis.

[rrozsa]

If Bob and Fred and Barry and Francis engage in their relationship because their religious faith requires it in order for them to achieve exaltation on heaven. I haven't heard of such a religion; however, if it does fly, you can guarantee there will be convenient little sects popping up all over the state, claiming their religious rights!

[The_Cave_Dweller]

Time to get the damned government out of our bedrooms altogether! Government's job is to protect our borders, regulate currency, and stay the hell out of our way! From which light bulb you can use to how much water has to be in your toilet, Big Brother wants to regulate every aspect of your life! Forced vaccinations to support Big Pharma, illegal wars to fatten politician's pockets, a permit to get married - another to be buried! ENOUGH!

[PourpaixPourpaix]

I don't like to pass judgment on other beliefs, but the prospect of having multiple wives seems pretty insane to me. Live with three or four American women at the same time, each one of them yelling orders at me, each wanting all the money, the one with the Taurus jealous of the one with the Malibu, the one with the Malibu jealous of the one with the Taurus. I'd say its a short road to a rubber room. Protect what little men's rights are left, and don't change the polygamy law!

Only the Muslims are worse. Here, go blow yourself and the coffee shop up in a horribly violent act of self-mutilation, and you'll be rewarded by being locked in a room for eternity with 36 virgins? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Please, no!

[Quiet_R_Bear]

I thought it was 76, which, I guess, makes it worse.

[mcc99]

If there is no paper trail, there is nothing for the state to complain about. Marriage is a CONTRACTUAL arrangement limited to two and only two parties and in the case of UT, one has to be a man and the other a woman. If however there are > 2 people living together and even if there is an "atypical" set of sleeping arrangements, then the state still has NOTHING. For if it is a crime to cohabitate, then college kids sharing an apt. are in violation of the bigamy law. Just as with these folks, where is the proof that there is a non-monogamous sleeping arrangement? Even if there is, it still doesn't matter. It is consenting adults, behind closed doors. If that is the case, it's not a matter for the state. That comes right from the US Supreme Court, too.

These people will win their case. They will have to take it to the SC of the US but they will win-- as long as there is one and only one marriage certificate involved, UT *ain't got nothin'!*

[dfeldman99]

If you allow homosexual marriage, you have to allow plural marriage. If you allow plural marriage, you have to allow marriage between siblings. If you allow marriage between siblings, you have to allow etc., etc., etc. Now, ain't that a grand lifestyle choice.

[angmck]

Oh boy, another person with a stunted IQ using a "slippery slope" argument. By your view, we should just ban marriage all together, because after all, no one but straight couples wanted to get "married" before marriage was created by law. If straight people never wanted to get married in the first place, it wouldn't have started your "slippery slope" towards gays and polygamists marrying, right?

[credibility2]

These aren't sister wives. They're no different than a street walker who gives it in order to get material comforts in return. The guy is no different than their you know what. Using this type of disgusting behavior behind the supposed dictates of a religion is twisted. I'm sure taxpayers are also supporting all of these street walkers and their kids.

[yahshuahdotcom]

Polygyny is RIGHTEOUS AND it's Biblical!! The concept that EVERY man can have only one wife and is hypocritical. All men are not predisposed to have 1 wife.