The following appeared in a Los Angeles Times editorial:
As gay marriage has gained acceptance across the country, its opponents have often claimed that the inevitable next steps would be recognition of bigamy, polygamy, bestiality and incest. So when a judge struck down part of Utah's anti-polygamy law last week, those critics were quick to say they told us so.
But that's not what happened at all. On the contrary, the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups makes it clear that neither fundamentalist Mormons nor anyone else has an inherent right to multiple marriages. Utah can continue to limit one marriage license to two people, under the same rules it has always followed, just as every other state does.But the problem with Utah's law is that it also prohibited cohabitation by unmarried people with multiple sexual partners.
Thus the famous cohabiting fundamentalist Mormons in the reality series "Sister Wives" were considered by the state to be violating the law even though they were not officially married; they moved to Nevada to avoid the possibility of prosecution, and filed suit to challenge the Utah law. Although star Kody Brown and his four female mates like to call themselves married, the only official marriage is between Brown and Meri.
But if all five want to live together, that's their business, as Waddoups wisely concluded.
Waddoups also concluded that Utah's law infringed on personal religious rights. The judge said that more secular forms, in which a man might have a legal wife and family but also a mistress, for example, were not generally prosecuted.
Utah's attorney general has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling. We hope he doesn't. His office has every right to enforce the anti-polygamy law, but should stay out of personal and cohabitation arrangements.