Isn polygamy illegal?
Technically speaking, polygamy is illegal in the United States; however, here we must distinguish between polygamy as it is practiced by fundamentalists, and bigamy, which is generally described as a man or a woman having a legally-recognized marriage to more than one wife or husband at the same time (and frequently implies that the arrangement is hidden from one or all spouses). The polygamy as it is practiced by Mormon fundamentalists is done with all marital parties’ knowledge, and in theory, all parties’ consent. However, usually there is only one legally-recognized marriage in a Mormon polygamist situation; the secondary “marriages” are recognized only by the particular sect or group to which the polygamous family belongs.
