This article is part of the series on Polygamy and the Latter Day Saint movement

Polygamy and the Latter Day Saint movement Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late 19th century Current state of polygamy in the Latter Day Saint movement 1890 Manifesto Second Manifesto (1904) Mormon fundamentalism Prominent practitioners of polygamy in the Latter Day Saint movement Joseph Smith, Jr. List of the wives of Joseph Smith, Jr. Brigham Young List of Latter Day Saint practitioners of plural marriage Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Related Legislation Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act Poland Act Edmunds Act Edmunds–Tucker Act Related Case Law Reynolds v. United States Mormon Church v. United States Related Articles Spiritual wifery Celestial Marriage Polygamy in the United States History of civil marriage in the U.S. v • d • e

The Edmunds Act, is United States federal legislation, signed into law on March 23, 1882, declaring polygamy a felony. The act not only reinforced the 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act but also revoked the polygamists right to vote, made them ineligible for jury service, and prohibited them from holding political office.

The law was applied in an apparently ex post facto manner; that is, polygamists were charged for polygamist marriages solemnized before passage of the statute. A constitutional challenge to the statute was framed on these and other grounds. The Supreme Court ruled in Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15 (1885), that the statute was not ex post facto because convicts were charged for their continued cohabitation, not for the prior illegal marriage . Modern scholarship suggests the law may be unconstitutional for being in violation of the Free Exercise Clause.¹

These restrictions were enforced regardless of whether an individual was actually practicing polygamy, or merely believed in the Mormon doctrine of plural marriage without actually participating in it.

All elected offices in the Utah Territory were vacated, an election board was formed to issue certificates to those who both denied polygamy and did not practice it, and new elections were held territory-wide.

Convictions

• Rudger Clawson — August 1882 — a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who was the first person convicted. He was pardoned by President Grover Cleveland mere months before his sentence was going to expire.
• William J. Flake — 1883 — one of the founders of Snowflake, Arizona, who married his second wife in 1868. Was imprisoned in the Yuma Territorial Prison in 1883. After his release, when asked which of his wives he was going to give up, he replied, "Neither. I married both in good faith and intended to support both of them." As he had already served his sentence, he could not be retried on the same charges.
• Abraham H. Cannon — 1886 — a member of the First Council of the Seventy of the Church and son of Apostle George Q. Cannon. Cannon as convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1886 and sentenced to six months' imprisonment, which he served in full. In 1889 he became an Apostle of the LDS church.

See also

References

1. ^ "THE PRACTICE OF POLYGAMY: LEGITIMATE FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION OR LEGITIMATE PUBLIC MENACE? REVISITING REYNOLDS IN LIGHT OF MODERN CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE". Retrieved on 2008-02-04.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)