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Release date: June 2, 2008 Is Criminalizing Polygamy Still Constitutional?
Contact: April L. Bogle, 404-712-8713, abogleb@law.emory.edu As officials sort out custody of more than 450 children involved in the Texas polygamy compound raid this month, Emory law professor John Witte Jr. is addressing the bigger issue of the future of polygamous marriage -- a growing practice in the United States. "Dealing with the children, ensuring proper procedures, sorting out the evidence and the like are all practically messy and emotionally trying questions, but not legally hard," Witte writes in op-ed articles appearing in Christianity Today, Sightings and other news outlets. "The harder legal question is whether criminalizing polygamy is still constitutional." Witte says he doubts that anyone in the Texas case will be prosecuted for practicing polygamy even though it has always been illegal in Texas and every other state. Why? More than 30,000 polygamous Mormon families live in Western states and thousands of polygamous Muslim families reside along the Eastern seaboard. "States are trying to avoid the questions of constitutional freedom that inevitably will be raised if those parties are prosecuted for violation of polygamy laws," says Witte in a Q&A published by Andrea Useem in ReligionWriter.com. Witte explains that polygamy has been illegal for more than 150 years in the United States for several reasons: it was prohibited by the Bible and tradition; it raised equal protection questions (should women be able to have multiple husbands if men are allowed to have multiple wives?); it could increase the prevalence of sexually transmitted disease; it would create administrative inefficiencies in the event of death or divorce; and it was deemed morally repugnant. All but the last reason, moral repugnance, can be fairly easily dismissed in today's culture and courts, says Witte in ReligionWriter.com, and even the moral argument is likely to lose ground. "If the culture changes so that polygamy becomes a more acceptable practice, eventually legislation is going to change, too, just as cultural acceptance of fornication and then sodomy led to legislative change." ### The Center for the Study of Law and Religion is home to world-class scholars and forums on the religious foundations of law, politics, and society. It offers first-rank expertise on how the teachings and practices of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have shaped and can continue to transform the fundamental ideas and institutions of our public and private lives. The scholarship of CSLR faculty provides the latest perspectives, while its conferences and public forums foster reasoned and robust public debate. Emory University (www.emory.edu) is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Perennially ranked as one of the country's top 20 national universities by U.S. News & World Report, Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia’s largest and most comprehensive health care system. Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory. |
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