## Facts

- Rodney Hans Holm, a member of the FLDS Church, was legally married to Suzie Stubbs in 1986.
- While still legally married, Holm participated in religious marriage ceremonies with Wendy Holm and later with Ruth Stubbs, Suzie’s sixteen-year-old sister.
- After the religious ceremony, Ruth moved into Holm’s home and lived with Holm, Suzie, Wendy, and their children as a wife in the household.
- By Ruth’s eighteenth birthday, she had conceived two children with Holm; the second child was born roughly three months after she turned eighteen.
- Utah charged Holm with three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old (Utah Code § 76-5-401.2 (2003)) and one count of bigamy (Utah Code § 76-7-101 (2003)).
- The bigamy charge proceeded on two statutory alternatives: that Holm “purported to marry” Ruth and that he “cohabited with” her while already married; the jury returned a special verdict finding both.
- A jury convicted Holm on all counts, and he appealed directly to the Utah Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether Utah’s bigamy statute applies when a legally married person enters only religious plural marriages and lives in a marriage-like household.
2. Whether applying the bigamy statute to religiously motivated plural marriage violates protections for free exercise of religion and freedom of conscience under the federal and Utah constitutions.
3. Whether the bigamy conviction violates substantive due process and privacy principles, including arguments based on Lawrence v. Texas.
4. Whether prosecution for bigamy violates rights of intimate or expressive association under the federal and Utah constitutions.
5. Whether the trial court properly established Utah’s territorial jurisdiction over the unlawful sexual conduct counts.
6. Whether Utah’s unlawful sexual conduct statute violates equal protection.

## Decision

- The Utah Supreme Court affirmed Holm’s convictions for bigamy and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
- The court held Holm’s conduct fell within the bigamy statute because “purports to marry” includes participating in a marriage ceremony while already legally married, even if the new union is not a valid civil marriage.
- The evidence supported the “cohabits with” alternative because Ruth lived in Holm’s home as a wife within the household.
- The court rejected constitutional challenges to the bigamy statute based on free exercise, due process, and association, concluding these doctrines do not bar prosecution for polygamous conduct under a neutral, generally applicable criminal law.
- The court held Utah had territorial jurisdiction over the unlawful sexual conduct counts.
- The court rejected the equal protection challenge and upheld the unlawful sexual conduct statute under rational basis review.
- A separate opinion concurred in part and dissented in part.

## Legal Principles

- A bigamy statute prohibiting a married person from “purport[ing] to marry” another person can reach religious-only marriage ceremonies that are treated by participants and the community as marriages, even without civil validity.
- Bigamy statutes may prohibit cohabitation in a marriage-like relationship with another person while a prior legal marriage remains in effect, where supported by household and relationship evidence.
- Free exercise and freedom-of-conscience protections safeguard religious belief but do not create a constitutional right to engage in polygamous conduct that violates a neutral, generally applicable criminal statute.
- Lawrence v. Texas does not establish a fundamental right to plural marriage; absent a fundamental right, prohibitions on polygamy are reviewed under rational basis and may be upheld based on legitimate state interests in regulating marriage and preventing related harms.
- Rights of intimate or expressive association do not include a right to engage in bigamy contrary to criminal law; the state may define and regulate civil marriage.
- Territorial jurisdiction over sex offenses is satisfied when sufficient elements of the charged conduct occur within the state under applicable jurisdiction statutes.
- Age-based and relationship-based classifications in statutes criminalizing sexual conduct with minors are generally subject to rational basis review and may be upheld as rationally related to protecting minors from exploitation.

## Conclusion

The Utah Supreme Court sustained Holm’s convictions, interpreting the bigamy statute to cover religious plural marriage ceremonies and cohabitation while already legally married, and holding that free exercise, due process, and association claims did not bar enforcement; it also upheld jurisdiction and rejected an equal protection challenge to Utah’s unlawful sexual conduct statute.


State v. Holm, 2006 UT 31, 137 P.3d 726 (Utah 2006), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 1252 (2007)