Is Plural Marriage Legal in Nevada

It is against Nevada law for an unmarried person to marry someone who currently has a husband or wife. These types of marriages are considered bigamists and are therefore invalid under Nevada law. Bigamous marriages do not affect the validity of the previous legal marriage. In summary, the only unmarried people who are legally allowed to marry in Nevada are other unmarried people. A married person remains married unless terminated by divorce, annulment or death. Also note that Nevada recognizes marriages in other countries and common-law marriages. If a person marries a married person, this bigamous marriage is automatically invalid and the first marriage remains valid. Some sects that practice or at least sanction polygamy include the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), The Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Apostolic United Brethren. Polygamy among these groups exists today in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Canada and some neighboring states, as well as among up to 15,000 isolated individuals without an organized church affiliation. [28] Polygamous Latter-day Saint churches are often referred to as „fundamentalist Mormons”; However, the main Latter-day Saint church has rejected polygamy since the early 20th century. Mormon fundamentalists often use an ambiguous revelation of September 27, 1886 to John Taylor as the basis for continuing the practice of plural marriage. [29] [unreliable source?] Many U.S.

courts (e.g., Turner v. S., 212 Miss. 590, 55 So.2d 228) treat bigamy as a strict liability crime: In some jurisdictions, a person may be convicted of a crime even if he or she reasonably believed that he or she had only one legal spouse. For example, if a person mistakenly believes that their ex-spouse is dead or that their divorce is final, they can still be convicted of bigamy if they marry a new person. [18] (b) A person who is legally divorced from the previous marriage at the time of the second marriage, or a person whose previous marriage was annulled by legal proxy. In addition, parties to a bigamistic marriage are civilly vulnerable to causes of action such as fraud and emotional distress. Anyone who contracts a void marriage can legally remarry without having to formally terminate the original marriage, as Nevada has never recognized it anyway. The modern face of polygamy in the United States is Kody Brown, a flexible man with a legal wife, three „spiritual” women, and more than a dozen children. Unlike the polygamists of a previous generation, who lived in fear of the authorities and the shameful public, Kody and his brood have lived on television for many years, as stars of the reality show Sister Wives. They were also the stars of a battle in federal court over the constitutionality of Utah`s broad definition of bigamy. Although the District Court sided with Kody and struck down the impugned provision (see below), the U.S.

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit simply overturned that decision and reinstated Utah`s ban. As the wedding capital of the world, Sin City sees its fair share of bigamous weddings. Some come from drunken escapades. Some occur after divorces that were never legally concluded. Some are the product of polygamous Mormon sects. And others are intentionally typed by people who take advantage of Las Vegas` swift marriage license laws to acquire assets and escape debt. In 1953, the state of Arizona investigated and searched a group of 385 people in the polygamous settlement of Hildale and Colorado City, which stretched across the Utah-Arizona border. All the men were arrested and the children were placed with foster families. A judge eventually declared the action illegal, and all returned to the community, which now numbers about 10,000 people.

[40] Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states. But Utah`s law is unique in that a person can be convicted of not only having two legal marriage licenses, but also of living with another adult in a marriage-like relationship if they are already legally married to someone else. Note that in the example above, Tom and Laïla`s marriage remains invalid even if Tom and Laïla`s charges are dropped. If Tom ever officially divorces Kai, he and Laila will have to remarry for it to be legal. The rest of Utah`s bigamy law remains intact under the ruling, so only people who fraudulently obtain multiple marriage licenses would be guilty. (a) To a person whose husband or wife was absent continuously for 5 years prior to the second marriage, if he or she did not know that the husband or wife was alive during that period. In 2008, beginning April 4, Texas state authorities temporarily detained 436 women and children after Rozita Swinton, a 33-year-old woman who lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, called Texas Social Services and a local animal shelter claiming to be a 16-year-old girl. In late March, she phoned the authorities, claiming she had been beaten and forced to become the „spiritual” wife of an adult man. In response to their calls, authorities raided the Eldorado ranch, about 40 miles south of San Angelo. YFZ Ranch belongs to The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy. Two men were arrested for obstructing the raid, but were later released.

Several men were convicted of sexual assault, rape and bigamy of underage girls. [45] [46] [47] Polygamy became a major social and political problem in the United States in 1852 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) announced that a form of practice called plural marriage was part of its doctrine. The U.S. government`s opposition to this practice led to a fierce legal dispute, culminating when Church President Wilford Woodruff announced the official abandonment of the Church on September 25, 1890. [1] However, renegade fundamentalist Mormon groups living primarily in the western United States, Canada, and Mexico still practice plural marriage. Although the Second Manifesto ended the official practice of new plural marriages, existing plural marriages were not automatically dissolved. Many Mormons, including prominent LDS Church leaders, retained existing plural marriages until the 20th century.