From Big Love to the Big House: Justifying Anti-Polygamy Laws in an Age of Expanding Rights

Authors

Thomas Buck Jr.

Abstract

In January 2009, Canadian authorities in Bountiful, British Columbia, arrested two leaders of separate sects of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) on charges of polygamy. Section 293 of Canada's Criminal Code makes polygamy a crime. The individual charges against the men were thrown out on technical grounds, but the litigation evolved into a constitutional question as to whether Canada's criminal prohibition on polygamy was consistent with the guarantees of religious freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of association, liberty and security of person, and equality in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the "Charter").

Recommended Citation

Thomas Buck Jr., From Big Love to the Big House: Justifying Anti-Polygamy Laws in an Age of Expanding Rights, 26 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 939 (2012).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol26/iss2/14