Legality of polygamy in the United States information
Polygamy was outlawed in federal territories by the Edmunds Act, and there are laws against the practice in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam,[1] and Puerto Rico.[2] Because state laws exist, polygamy is not actively prosecuted at the federal level.[3]
Many US courts (e.g. Turner v. S., 212 Miss. 590, 55 So.2d 228) treat bigamy as a strict liability crime: in some jurisdictions, a person can be convicted of a felony even if he reasonably believed he had only one legal spouse. For example, if a person has the mistaken belief that their previous spouse is dead or that their divorce is final, they can still be convicted of bigamy if they marry a new person.[4]
^9 GCA §31.10
^33 L.P.R.A. § 4754
^"U.S. laws and Senate hearings on polygamy".
^Loewy, Arnold H. (1975), Criminal Law in a nutshell 2nd Ed, West Publishing Co., p. 131
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