19 - Law and Patriarchy at the Supreme Court

Ben Finch

I found both the political analysis and the petition to be very interesting. I thought the petition did a good job making arguments as to why the law would be so disruptive. The political analysis does make it seem like there was a lot of ties in with anti-federal sentiments similar to slavery. I find it interesting that a lot of the American South supported slavery but rejected polygamy, despite their similar defenses. I appreciated the balance the petition tried to strike between building a constructive relationship with the federal government and also wanting some level of autonomy. While today we seem to really play into "states rights", they tried to play it as a way to destroy governmental relationships with the Mormon people.