Zion provides more fodder for law school discussions. As part of divorce proceedings, father has been barred from discussing his belief in polygamy with his minor children. I have not located the actual order, so there is just the news report. (The Tribune is particularly bad on legal reporting so no assurance the facts relate closely to the report.) Based on the news, father has adopted the views of one the fundamentalist Mormon groups, including acceptance of polygamy. (I don't know if blood atonement is part of that branch's set of doctrines or not.) Mother rejects such stuff and divorces Father. COurt says visitations with kids cannot involve discussion of polygamy or transport to the polygamous town. It seems a big part of the explanation is that it would be dangerous for the minor children to be taught that this form of criminal conduct is a good thing, polygamy being a felony here in Zion.
Of course, the father is advancing an argument that this infringes his First Amendment rights to discuss his religious beliefs with this children, and that it is contrary to Utah case law to bar discussion of polygamy. I have to look at the case referred to. Still, I don't see why it would be okay to tell your children what a good thing one kind of felony is when you don't get to talk about other kinds of felonies being good. Suppose father wanted to tell his children about the good in marijuana consumption? I suppose an interesting comparative case would be divorce of parents, one of whom leaves Santeria. The problem is that animal sacrifice within religious practice is not a crime, but polygamy is. The 1991 case seems to have been concerned with whether a polygamous couple could, for that reason alone, be barred from adoption.
Update: The 1991 case is Matter of Adoption of W.A.T., 808 P.2d 1083 (1991 Utah). Very much focused on adoption.
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