Polygamy Debate proves interesting.

There are informative articles in both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News today on last nights debate at University of Utah's College of Law. It's summed up by this exchange. I could write several blog posts, and in fact may do so, on the exchange. I'll start with this.

"The debate got lively when (Marci) Hamilton accused the attorney general's office of not trying hard enough to find evidence to prosecute polygamy.

'I know they don't like to hear it, but someone has to say that because it's a fact,' she said.

'I'm astounded at the naivete in that statement,' (Kirk) Torgensen replied. 'I live this. I don't write about it from some office back east. I live it. I've got to sit in cases where I have got to ask, "Where is the evidence so I can prove it in court?" Now you can say this is easy ... '

'I didn't say it was easy, I just said you weren't trying hard enough.'

When Torgensen offered to deputize her to prosecute cases, some in the audience shouted 'No! No! No!' while others shouted 'Yes! Yes!' The chief deputy did warn polygamous communities that the attorney general's office would prosecute underage marriage cases."

The offer to deputize Marci is the one of the core points. "You try it Marci, it's not that easy." Utah cannot house all the inmates they would produce in a full on prosecution of polygamy.

Prosecuting polygamy establishes polygamy as the crime. Establishing polygamy as the crime sets up test cases along the lines of a class action to present to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court these cases may ultimately come before may be an activist and liberal one and their actions will be based on the concept that marriage is defined by society. Such a court will not be opposed to homosexual "marriage" and is not likely to be able to wiggle around the implications that has for polygamy. In short, as stated before, Marci would set up the case that would be the "Roe vs Wade" of polygamy legalization. Utah, for it's part is trying to bargain with polygamists and Utah at large to make polygamy a misdemeanor which would keep underage marriages a prosecutable offense but make adult consensual polygamy a traffic ticket. As an aside, that's a devils bargain I don't think we should make.

Marci says polygamy should be aggressively prosecuted;

" 'It is easy to figure out who is engaging in polygamy,' Hamilton said. "You just have to figure out who is going into which house. . . . If you know that even a small percentage of individuals in these circumstances are prone to abuse children, why wouldn't you enforce the criminal law?' "

Is my DAUGHTER engaged in a polygamy Marci? She lives in a home owned by one woman, and in rooms rented out to both her and a young man. That's two women and one man. Is that a polygamy Marci? Kirk makes that point to her;

"Torgensen, who said he was expressing his own opinions and not necessarily those of the Attorney General's Office, said Hamilton did not understand the difficulties in getting evidence of crimes within polygamous communities and her sweeping assumptions would never uphold in court.

'People cohabitate with each other in many instances, in many circumstances, all the time,' he said. 'Who goes into what house doesn't prove anything. The difference here is that you make it sound very easy and in my experience that is not true.' "

Marci Hamilton is an activist who wishes to bend law and have it selectively applied in other cases, to advance HER agenda;

"Heidi Mattingly, a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society, was critical of Hamilton.

'I think she doesn't know her law,' she said."

Heidi, don't be so kind. She knows the law, Marci is an activist, the law is only important when it is on her side. Now I'd like to see a debate with a clear supporter of polygamy on the panel.

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