Two Policies

I find it ironic that we have two states, Texas and Utah, who have diametrically dissimilar approaches to fantasy polygabigamy prosecutions.

In recent TV reports, we have heard that Warren Jeffs participated in "spiritual marriages".  If these marriages were "spiritual", then how does the state have any power over them?  Granted, if minors and sex were involved, then a prosecution should (and did) ensue.  Nevertheless, Texas is pushing forward with "bigamy" charges for several men, including Jeffs.

Mark Shurtleff recently stated that, in his response to Jonathan Turley's challenge of Utah's (nutty) bigamy statute, he will argue that Kody Brown doesn't have standing to bring suit because he and his family were never charged or harmed (just threatened [to the point of flight] by endless prosecutorial saber-rattling).

Meanwhile Shurtleff's less reticent Texas counterpart, Greg Abbott, has no qualms about charging consenting adults (like Wendell Nielsen and his life-partners) with violating adult sex guidelines (!!!).  Abbott must be one of the few AGs who were sleeping under a rock when the Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas.  

This will be a fascinating time.  I wonder if Jonathan Turley will now go to Texas and take up the cause of Wendell Nielsen - to prove his commitment to illustrating the absurdity of post-Lawrence morality statutes and prosecutions - in more than one state.

Again, now that Texas is eating Jeffs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I wonder if the Mo' Church will reach out to Texas prosecutors and IMPLORE them to drop the remaining, looney bigamy prosecutions (in order to preserve its treasured Reynolds decision).

More Observations

Today I stumbled upon a post from an FLDS-hater discussing her feelings about the final days of Allen Keate's trial. I'm not encouraging you to read it, but the link is here if you want to savor true feelings of hatred.

http://tripleap.blogspot.com/2009/12/angry-humbled-surprised-and-verclempt.html

The message here is pretty straightforward - Polygamy is an inherently evil concept, and therefore its practitioners are inherently evil. The blogger exults over the harshness of the sentence (33 years). She "blesses" the state of Texas for its spitefulness.

My guess is that Allen Keate was born into the Short Creek community and that his religion has been the same throughout his life - even as far back as the days when marriages to fifteen-year-olds were commonplace and honorable (just like today). My philosophical beliefs eschew marriages under eighteen, but I love living in a country that at least pretends to champion religious freedom for all creeds and communities.

The blogger and everyone else who is observing these court proceedings know damned well that these "young" marriages are a fundamental tenet of (what was) the mainstream Mormon religion. They all know that there is a pervasive campaign to spread hatred for Warren Jeffs and to demonize the members of the congregation of people over whom he presides - hence the crusade for long sentences. WHAT !!!!! ???? - you don't think a crusade is underway? Well, here are some observations:

1. Recently, Judge Lintbag denied an FLDS motion in the UEP trust case. Maybe that is to be expected but, to "twist the knife", she ACTUALLY announced that she was "striking" the motion from the court record. (I think Lintbag and Wart-thug must be lovers). She needs to learn to spell the word, "A-P-P-E-A-L".

2. Becky Musser has become the darling "STAR" witness for the prosecution in the FLDS trials. We conveniently overlook the fact that she (like Intestinal Flora and the other unmentionables) were intimately embroiled in the conspiracy to choreograph the YFZ Ranch raid. More odorous still is the fact that a Texas deputy A.G. flew to Boise (among other places) to accompany Musser for depositions, in order to run interference and protect her at all costs from exposure as a conspiratrice.

3. Texas's Attorney General, Greg Abbott, was permitted by Barbie to campaign to prospective jurors last week (during voir dire) regarding the importance of delivering a "stiff" sentence to the FLDS men. That smells to me like abuse of process, but who am I to have an opinion about justice in America? Oh yeah, that's right - it's not ABOUT JUSTICE - it's about politics and PAYCHECKS !!!!

4. Harvey Hilderbran (who has made no secret of his determination to drive the FLDS out of Texas) managed to craft an unbelievably unconstitutional sentencing enhancement into recent legislation. After the FLDS moved into Eldorado, the law was changed - NOT ONLY to provide stiff sentences for young, unlicensed marriages, but ALSO to add an extra 79-year sentencing enhancement if there is a "religious" component to the non-legal "marriage". Tell me this isn't a direct targeting of the FLDS community (and EX POST FACTO legislation). Hilderbran needs to read the Lukumi decision. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=508&invol=520

Read this brief quote from the text of the decision (where the Court examines the language of the city councilmen and their conspicuous antipathy for the RELIGION):

Councilman Cardoso said that Santeria devotees at the Church "are in violation of everything this country stands for." Councilman Mejides indicated that he was "totally against the sacrificing of animals," and distinguished kosher slaughter because it had a "real purpose." The "Bible says we are allowed to sacrifice an animal for consumption," he continued, "but for any other purposes, I don't believe that the Bible allows that." The president of the city council, Councilman Echevarria, asked: "What can we do to prevent the Church from opening?"

This bears an eerie similarity to the West Texas mindset.

5. In the spirit of the crusade, before the sentencing deliberations, Barbie reminded the jurors of the importance of remembering that they could impose a 99-year sentence. After the sentence was read, she told the jurors "how PROUD" she was of them for what they had done. Elsewhere in America, a double-homicide might not earn you a 33-year sentence. In Utah, many people convicted of unlawful sex with a minor (age 14 or 15) (in a religious context or not) have received sentences of a few months to a few years. Tom Green got five years (Linda was 13). Rodney Holm got seven months (Ruth was 16).

6. Rozita Swinton's hoax phone-call trial keeps getting conveniently postponed. God forbid we should discover that the barbarous YFZ ranch raid was planned around a scripted, fraudulent allegation by an impostrix. Who colluded with her . . . . . . ???

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Let's pretend for a second that I didn't esteem the FLDS people. Let's pretend that they are not God-fearing, devout, industrious families. Pretend that I had never even heard of them before today. Still, I would stand up and protest the hysterical, prejudicial, even BRUTAL witch-hunt that has driven ordinarily decent Americans to lust for the death or permanent incarceration of a fellow American (who is simply "different").

Even if, over the last 80 years, some FLDS person may have done a stupid, or cruel, or unethical thing (like I have) - even if you don't like their leaders or their doctrines - even if you HATE the "concept" of plural marriage, why is it okay to yearn for these decent men to go to prison, when they have already stopped doing the very thing you want them to "stop doing"? It all seems disingenuous to me. It seems like the never-ending, busy-body parade of new and old polygamy-haters is either driven by Satan himself or by the craving for publicity, pity, profit or vengeance (sorry, I couldn't keep up the alliteration).

You decide.

You can also listen to the passionate protest of FLDS member, Willie Jessop, on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFEq2Tnf8s&feature=player_embedded