He has fathered 17 children with his four lovers.In 2014, a federal judge sided with the Browns and overturned part of the state’s ban on polygamy.In 2013, Kody Brown filed a lawsuit that sought to strike down parts of Utah’s anti-polygamy laws.
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“We’re only guilty of trying to love a different way than the norm”, he said. The family sued the state of Utah, and in 2013, a federal judge ruled that polygamous consenting adults wouldn’t be under the threat of arrest.
When Sister Wives premiered in 2011, local prosecutors said they had opened an investigation and were considering pressing charges against the Browns.
After that ruling, Utah’s attorney general filed an appeal. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups had found that the threat of prosecution alone drove the Browns out of the state and that key parts of Utah’s bigamy law violated their right to privacy and religious freedom.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kody Brown and his four wives – Meri, Christine, Janelle and Robyn, who appear on the TLC reality television show Sister Wives – can not sue the state of Utah because “there is no reasonable expectation the Browns will face prosecution”. “They are marginalizing a minority class in the United States”.
“The Brown family is obviously disappointed in the ruling but remains committed to this fight for the protections of religion, speech, and privacy in Utah”, the statement said. Officials claim that the ban is only consequential if other laws were broken in connection to polygamy, such as underage marriage. They argue their show is evidence that polygamous marriages can be just as healthy and monogamous ones.
The state said the appeals court made the right call.
Some sects and breakaway groups follow the early theological doctrine of plural marriage, thought to bring exaltation in heaven.
Therefore, because Brown does not claim to be married to all of the women-nor does the state ban cohabitation in premarital or adulterous relationships-Waddoups threw out the cohabitation section of the statute, while upholding the prohibition on bigamy.
Polygamy is relatively rare in the US and mainly associated with the Mormon population, even though the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially banned the practice in 1890. You can also join the discussion by using the hashtag #TribTalk on Twitter and Google+ or texting 801-609-8059.
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