The church performed Santeria rituals, including those involving animal sacrifice, and the city enacted health codes to stop the practice, as a guise for outlawing the church outright. In Hialeah, the city’s intent was clear: the ordinances were found to pertain specifically to the ritualistic practices of the church.


Further, espousal of one’s faith should not meet with prosecution. If a religion wishes to proselytize its beliefs and claim a protected practice, it may do so without state interference. This concept, in concert with the legalization of plural marriage, would assist in moving groups such as the FLDS into further dialogue and contact with society at large.


The Old Order Amish are a separatist group, prevalent in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states. The Amish stress their simplicity and religion above all else, and actively avoid contact with the outside world, to the point of not taking electricity from a power grid, and allowing their church to police their population. Amish people will cooperate on a limited basis with law enforcement, but prefer to mete out their own punishments via church practices wherever possible. They also prefer using home remedies, but will avail themselves of modern hospitals and doctors when necessary, relying upon mutual aid funds and churches in order to pay the hospital bills.


The primary case as relates to the First Amendment involving the Amish is Wisconsin v. Yoder. In that case, the Amish were granted an exemption from compulsory public education due to their lifestyle and religious practices. 


In the FLDS, plural marriage is encouraged, and men are to marry at least three wives in order to guarantee their place in heaven.  In its polygamy practice, the FLDS also adheres to what it calls the Law of Placing, wherein a young woman of marriageable age is assigned a husband by revelation from God to the leader of the fundamentalist group, who is regarded as a prophet.  The definition of “marriageable” according to the church is unknown, but anecdotal evidence and personal testimony from former members as well as investigative journalists suggest the onset of puberty and obvious signs of physical maturity and the ability to bear children as indicative of “marriageable age.” Illegal weddings involving girls of fourteen and fifteen are claimed to have been commonplace.


Balancing the needs of religious practice in both of these separatist groups with the needs of the state and society as a whole requires encouragement of a more consistent and open relationship. In order to legitimately accommodate arranged or plural marriage within the FLDS, its members must first agree to submit to state laws, and in order to foster that relationship, the state must prove itself trustworthy. If plural marriage were allowed, the FLDS might potentially agree to register all births, deaths and vital statistics with the proper authorities, acquiesce to legally registered nuptial contracts for each marriage, enforce limitations on parental consent and child age at the time of marriage in accordance with state sanction, and forbid marriage under the age of parental consent.
