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Are Current Laws Against Polygamy Enforceable?
vanity | May 26, 2008 | Jim Noble

Posted on 05/26/2008 8:42:15 PM PDT by Jim Noble

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I seriously think that changes over the last 35 years in laws, and the interpretation of laws by the courts, have made it very unlikely that polygamists can be punished, unless their "wives" are underage or they have obtained multiple marriage licenses by fraud.
1 posted on 05/26/2008 8:42:18 PM PDT by Jim Noble
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To: Jim Noble
Homosexual or “gay” marriage broke the dam, especially now that our most populous state has it. There will be 50 state polygamy within 5-10 years, just as there will be “gay” marriage.
2 posted on 05/26/2008 8:45:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary or Obama can!)
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To: Jim Noble
If multiple children by multiple women was the standard, there is a whole lot of money to be made off many NBA players, politicians and most any jock.
3 posted on 05/26/2008 8:46:02 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Jim Noble

Not necessarily even then. I think that someone under the age of consent can still legally marry with parental approval in some, if not most, states.


4 posted on 05/26/2008 8:47:33 PM PDT by null and void (Capitalism=>Volkswagon, Audi, Porsche, BMW. |WALL| Communism=>Trabi. Any questions?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Homosexual or “gay” marriage broke the dam,

Nah, weakening divorce law broke the dam many years ago. What's the real difference between polygamy and serial marriage?

5 posted on 05/26/2008 8:50:10 PM PDT by A.Hun (Common sense is no longer common.)
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To: Jim Noble

To make matters even more complicated, from what I can gather, the FLDS men and women do not even cohabitate. From what I saw on TV, for the most part the women live with the children kind of like in dorms. Some of the individual families, I believe, lived in separate homes. So if the State of Texas thinks it is going to prosecute for polygamy, I think they are going to have one heck of a hard time.

I think the judge, CPS, law enforcement THOUGHT they were going to look like heroes barging in there with guns and a great show of force because most people were going to shout, “Hallelujah, now those dang religious perverts are going to get what’s comin’ to ‘em - yahoo baby!”

Too bad the anti FLDS zealots forgot to study and Constitution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_QG1UqHLs


6 posted on 05/26/2008 8:50:41 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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To: texas booster
If multiple children by multiple women was the standard, there is a whole lot of money to be made off many NBA players, politicians and most any jock.

Yes, exactly.

You can SAY that "polygamy" is illegal, but as long as the men don't get more than one marriage license (at a time), don't have sex with underage women, and don't exceed the average number of Baby Mamas in Detroit, I don't see how the law can be enforced.

You certainly can't prosecute Fundamentalist LDS people who do this and let all the other ones go.

7 posted on 05/26/2008 8:52:42 PM PDT by Jim Noble (May 17 was my Tenth Anniversary on FR)
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To: null and void

I think at age 15 teenagers can marry with parental consent in TX. The State of TX needs to pull its head out of its rear-end and start following the Constitution. An entire community was condemned on the basis of a false report. At the time law enforcement personnel could not find the “victim” and/or the perp at the ranch, they should have backed off.

The one thing that is the most outrageous to me is that they held, and are still holding, adult women against their will. That is frightening to me, not to mention rounding up all the innocent little children, dumping them in a coliseum, then in creepy foster homes. It makes my skin crawl.

Is this my America?


8 posted on 05/26/2008 8:56:35 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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To: Jim Noble

Gay marriage killed hope of one man, one women. It’s a natural progression from there.


9 posted on 05/26/2008 8:57:19 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: Saundra Duffy

Hey, give ‘em a break!

At least this time they didn’t incinerate a bunch of kids to save them!


10 posted on 05/26/2008 8:58:52 PM PDT by null and void (Capitalism=>Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagon. |WALL| Communism=>Trabi. Any questions?)
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To: Jim Noble

“You certainly can’t prosecute Fundamentalist LDS people who do this and let all the other ones go. “

Furthermore, do you recall the pro-life folks who tried to hold Planned Parenthood accountable for aborting teenage girls who had been impregnated by older men? Good grief - the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth - PRIVACY PRIVACY PRIVACY. That investigation was shut down dead in its tracks. There is a double standard so high and wide, it just stinks. At least the FLDS people weren’t having abortions!!!


11 posted on 05/26/2008 9:00:12 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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To: Saundra Duffy
Is this my America?

Yes.

After our 'betters' read 1984, thinking it was a manual...

12 posted on 05/26/2008 9:00:36 PM PDT by null and void (Capitalism=>Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagon. |WALL| Communism=>Trabi. Any questions?)
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To: null and void

“At least this time they didn’t incinerate a bunch of kids to save them!”

The day they rounded up all those kids at gunpoint, was the day their worst nightmares came true. Those kids will suffer PTSD for the rest of their lives.


13 posted on 05/26/2008 9:01:49 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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To: null and void

The Thought Police are alive and well and living in Texas. I really wish they hadn’t used Baptist buses to round up all the FLDS kids! Whose bright idea was that - Huckabee?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_QG1UqHLs


14 posted on 05/26/2008 9:04:48 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (For victory & freedom!!!)
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To: Saundra Duffy

You imagine very mild nightmares.


15 posted on 05/26/2008 9:05:53 PM PDT by null and void (Capitalism=>Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagon. |WALL| Communism=>Trabi. Any questions?)
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To: Jim Noble

No, its not enforceable. The “underage” thing is (parental consent applies to a marriage, and these aren’t legal marriages). Thats about it. And thats about as far as the public ought to have any interest, that and the issue of force, where force is an element in maintaining control.

Texas over-reached. But where they can prove under-aged relationships, they may still have a case. And thats the only area where there is a public safety issue.


16 posted on 05/26/2008 9:08:24 PM PDT by marron
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To: marron

My understanding is that the guys have one “legal” wife, theoretically that one could be underage with parental approval.

BTW, what is the government doing in the deciding who can get married business in the first place?

Isn’t marriage a religious imperative?


17 posted on 05/26/2008 9:13:18 PM PDT by null and void (Capitalism=>Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagon. |WALL| Communism=>Trabi. Any questions?)
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To: Jim Noble
I believe that in the US, laws against polygamy have become unenforceable while no one was looking.

Hugh: "No one was looking? Are you kidding?"


18 posted on 05/26/2008 9:14:17 PM PDT by TheDon
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To: null and void

I think you’ll have to go back a long way to get to a time when marriages weren’t registered with the civil authorities.

And while marriages at an early age have been legal forever with parental consent (you don’t have to go back many generations to see very young brides in most families) I don’t think you’ll be able to defend under-aged non-marriages of the kind we’re talking about.

Unofficial polygamy among adults is beyond the reach of civil law. But the catch is “adult”.


19 posted on 05/26/2008 9:20:40 PM PDT by marron
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To: TheDon

Wow, seven boobs in one picture, and all of them phony.


20 posted on 05/26/2008 9:23:37 PM PDT by poindexter
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