Reynolds v. United States

Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1879), argued 14–15 Nov. 1878 decided 5 May 1879 by vote of 9 to 0; Waite for the Court, Field concurring. This case grew out of the Grant administration's campaign to stamp out Mormon polygamy. Grant appointed James B. McKean, chief justice of the Utah Territorial Supreme Court, and General J. Wilson Shaffer, territorial governor, with orders to end Mormon polygamy. McKean's United States marshals rounded up hundreds of Mormons under a federal antibigamy statute. To test federal law, the Mormon church hierarchy prepared George Reynolds, secretary to Brigham Young, for a test case. Following conviction in territorial district court and appeal to the Utah territorial supreme court, Reynolds appealed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Anti‐Mormon arguments termed polygamy socially destructive and accused the Mormons of constituting a moral menace to the country. Mormons argued that the First Amendment protected religious freedom and that plural marriage was part of religious practice. In the alternative, they argued that polygamy was not bigamy and that it was supportive of mainstream American values such as family and spiritual growth, was not destructive of the social fabric, and clearly did not threaten the public peace.

Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite, for a unanimous court, declared that federal statute constitutionally could punish criminal activity regardless of religious beliefs. Simply, religious practices that impaired the public interest did not fall under the protection of the First Amendment.

In analyzing the original position of the founders on the First Amendment's language on religion, Waite relied heavily upon history and in particular upon Thomas Jefferson (see History, Court Uses of). In the process, Waite observed that “a wall of separation between church and state” existed, thus using a metaphor that would trouble the courts for the next century (p. 164).

See also Marriage; Religion.

Bibliography

Sarah Barringer Gordon , The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America (2002).

Gordon Morris Bakken