“Plaintiffs’ substantive challenge to Utah’s criminal prohibition of polygamy faces a litany of seemingly insurmountable precedental obstacles. Case law upholding the criminalization of polygamy from constitutional attack dates back at least to 1878, when in Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 162–66, 25 L.Ed. 244 (1878), the Supreme Court rejected a free exercise challenge to the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862. More contemporary decisions from the Supreme Court and from this Court have acknowledged the continued validity of Reynolds….
“Similarly, constitutional challenges to Utah’s criminal statute outlawing polygamy, Utah Code § 76–7–101, have failed. In Potter, this Court relied upon Reynolds in rejecting attacks that were premised upon the Due Process and Free Exercise Clauses of the United States Constitution. See Potter, 760 F.2d at 1068–69. And the Utah Supreme Court recently invoked Reynolds and Potter in holding that a defendant’s conviction under § 76–7–101 did not violate his rights to association, to the free exercise of religion, and to substantive due process, as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution.” J. Holmes, Bronson v. Swensen, 500 F.3d 1099, 1105-1106 (10th Cir. 2007).
