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

REYNOLDS V. UNITED STATES

REYNOLDS V. UNITED STATES, 98 U.S. 145 (1878), was one of the Supreme Court's first decisions addressing the free exercise clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits Congress from making laws that infringe on the free exercise of religion. George Reynolds, a member of the Mormon religion, challenged a federal law that prohibited polygamy in the territories. He argued that his religion required him to have multiple wives and that to prohibit him from doing so was an infringement on his free exercise of religion. Chief Justice Morrison Waite, writing for the Supreme Court, held that to accept that argument would be to make religious beliefs superior to the laws of the United States and would allow any citizen to avoid compliance with the law. This case is credited with drawing a distinction between belief and action in holding that the free exercise clause protects the right of individuals to believe what they want but does not protect religious actions that conflict with the laws of the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cannon, George Q. A Review of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Case of Geo. Reynolds vs. the United States. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Printing and Publishing Establishment, 1879.

Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Shira M.Diner

See alsoFirst Amendment ; Polygamy .