The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
if they do not protect him against the law itself and
his punishment, can in any wise be urged in
mitigation?
This whole question has been before the Supreme
Court of the United States, growing out of the
religious beliefs of the Mormons. Their church re-
quired of them that where possible they practice
polygamy. But Congress made polygamy punish-
able. The question went to the Supreme Court
upon conviction of one Reynolds in the then ter-
ritory of Utah. In Reynolds vs. United States, g8
U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 145, in an opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice White, it is said:
On the trial accused proved that at the time of his
alleged second marriage, and for many years before, he
had been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints commonly called the Mormon Church,
and a believer in its doctrines; that it was the duty of
the male members of said church, circumstances permit-
ting, to practice polygamy; that members of the church
believed that the practice of polygamy was directly enjoined
upon the male members thereof by Almighty God,
in a revelation to Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet
of said church; and that the penalty for failing or re-
fusing to do so would be damnation in the life to
come. . . .
In our opinion the statute immediately under con-
sideration is within the legislative power of Congress.
It is constitutional and valid as prescribing a rule of
action for all those residing in the territories and places
over which the United States has exclusive control.
This being so, the only question which remains is,
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