General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should Polygamy be illegal? [View all]cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)If a state does not recognize someone's self-identified marriage then that is the state's prerogative.
Laws against bigamy are laws against fraudulently getting married... filling out the forms to trick the state into recognizing a marriage that is not valid because a person is already married to someone else.
But if three people somewhere simply decide to consider themselves to be married in the eyes of each other, or God, or whatever, then that is not bigamy... at least not in the modern world where adultery and cohabitation and such are no longer criminal offenses.
Since Utah does not recognize plural marriage then nobody can be legally married to more than one person... by definition.
So the question is the criminal legality of self-made arrangements, not legal marriage.