1879 Court Case That Forced the LDS Church to End Polygamy (Nathan Oman 3 of 5)

What case helped end polygamy in the LDS Church? What do a 19th-century Mormon polygamist, reality TV star Kody Brown, and the Native American religious use of peyote all have in common?

https://youtu.be/r32GTYt0N5g

In this fascinating episode of Gospel Tangents, host Rick Bennett sits down with Nathan Oman, law professor and author of Law and the Restoration, to unpack one of the most consequential Supreme Court cases in American history: the 1879 Reynolds v. United States decision. Oman is the author of 2 volumes of Law and the Restoration Volume 1 and Volume 2, from Greg Kofford Books.

We explore how this landmark ruling was the “big bang” that launched the federal government’s legal crusade against the Latter-day Saints, systematically crushing their legal options and ultimately forcing the 1890 Manifesto that ended plural marriage. But the impact of Reynolds didn’t stop in Utah!

Discover the shocking history of how the Reynolds decision was later used during the Spanish-American War to legally justify American imperialism, denying full constitutional rights to “conquered” peoples in the Philippines and Puerto Rico by comparing them to “barbaric” polygamist Mormons.

We also jump forward in time to discuss Sister Wives star Kody Brown’s famous lawsuit. Find out why his lower-court victory decriminalizing polygamy was thrown out by the 10th Circuit Court, and why modern prosecutors deliberately avoid bringing pure polygamy charges today just to keep the Supreme Court from having to officially answer if polygamy is actually unconstitutional. Finally, we dive into the unexpected crossover between Mormon polygamy and the Native American Church’s sacramental use of peyote.

In this video, we cover:

• The 1879 Reynolds v. United States test case and its impact on the First Amendment.
• How the federal legal crusade forced the LDS Church to issue the 1890 Manifesto.
• How Mormon polygamy was used to justify denying constitutional rights in Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
• Why Kody Brown’s legal victory to decriminalize polygamy was vacated.
• Why the modern Supreme Court secretly avoids ruling on the constitutionality of polygamy.
• The surprising link between the Reynolds decision and the 1990 peyote Supreme Court case written by Justice Antonin Scalia

📚 Guest: Nathan Oman, law professor at William & Mary and author of Law and the Restoration.
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Chapters

0:00 Federal Prosecution of Polygamy in Utah
14:46 Kody Brown Polygamy Case
21:09 Is Peyote Affected by Reynolds Polygamy Case?