Polygamy is a federal crime (as well as being a state crime in all 50 states + DC) Under the Edmunds Act of 1882, which explicitly states that it covers "unlawful cohabitation" (what in the old days we'd call "common-law marriage") as well as an actual marriage license
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
This was, of course, obviously and explicitly an instrument of persecution against the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints at the time Which is why Mormons still hate this law (even the mainstream ones who don't practice polygamy), along with hardcore civil libertarians
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
But the Supreme Court has upheld it as not violating the First Amendment because plural marriage is a bridge too far for what the SCOTUS will accept as covered by the umbrella of "religious freedom", so that's the status quo
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
It doesn't just make it illegal, it actually set up a federal commission in the Utah Territory to proactively get into people's business and make sure they weren't hiding extra wives in their houses A task the modern FBI still sees as in their purview
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ok but is the federal jurisdiction actually lawful now that Utah is a state? And, there aren't any "territories" in the sense as Utah was anymore, has it ever been clearly defined what if anything counts as "other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction"?
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Federal law supersedes state law when they conflict, this is the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution (Article VI Clause 2)
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But what about the tenth amendment?
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Replying to @Random832 @arthur_affect and
I mean, the feds can't prosecute a *murder* unless there's something crossing state lines [or it's in a post office or something], even if the federal and state laws don't line up in terms of defenses like stand your ground or whatever - how is this different?
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Because murder isn't specifically banned by a federal law Other things *are* banned by federal law that murder is a subset or superset of -- terrorism, assassination, organized crime ("racketeering") -- and the FBI can and will seize on the chance to get involved if those apply
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Yes it is though - 18 USC § 1111 It just, you know, only applies in the situations where there's legitimately federal jurisdiction.
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I think that statute is specifically worded so it *doesn't* override state authority, whereas other statutes are specifically worded so that they *do*
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