Reynolds v. United States

This week’s religious freedom case is one near to my experience as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the “Church”). Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1878), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld a statute that restricted the free exercise of religion by Mr. Reynolds. At the time, some members of the Church were engaged in the practice of polygamy, and Mr. Reynolds was being tried criminally for so doing. The opinion of the Court glosses over many procedural and due process errors committed by the prosecution, any number of which would be fatal to a criminal prosecution today, in order to get to the finding that the Court wanted to make, to wit: that the federal government had the power to infringe on the religious practices of a persecuted and marginalized minority adhered to, simply due to the government’s dislike of that practice.