Entry for The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, David S.

MORMONS: Through repeated appearances before the Court, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known colloquially as the Mormons, was a driving force behind the interpretation of the first amendment’s religion clauses. Pointing to examples from the Old Testament and Mormon scripture, the church officially endorsed plural marriage in 1852. Four years later, the Republican Party announced its opposition to the “twin relics of barbarism, ” slavery and polygamy, and in 1862, congress passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act criminalizing polygamy in the territories. Mormons, however, regarded the law as a violation of their constitutional rights, and federal officials in Utah Territory thought convictions under the law were impossible because of Mormon influence on the territorial judiciary. In 1874, congress responded by sharply limiting local control of the Utah courts. Prosecutors and church leaders then cooperated to create a test case on the constitutionality of the Morrill Act. George Reynolds was found guilty of bigamy, and ultimately appealed to the Court. Prior to Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1879), the Court had never construed the meaning of the free-exercise clause. Reaching its substance for the first time, the Court held that it protected beliefs but not actions, affirming Reynolds’s conviction. Reynolds launched a decade-long legal crusade against polygamy that came to be known as “The Raid. ” This effort resulted in numerous cases before the Court. In an early example of dialogue with the legislative branch, Miles v. United States, 103 U.S. 304 (1880), suggested that anti-bigamy laws be amended to ease prosecutions. Congress responded, and in 1885 three cases under the new law reached the Court. In Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15 (1885), the Court upheld the disenfranchisement of polygamists