Edmunds–Tucker Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887 touched all the issues at dispute between the United States Congress and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The act disincorporated both the Church and the Perpetual Emigration Fund on the grounds that they fostered polygamy.

The act prohibited the practice of polygamy and punished it with a fine of from $500 to $800 and imprisonment of up to five years. It dissolved the corporation of the church and directed the confiscation by the federal government of all church properties valued over a limit of $50,000.

The act was enforced by the U.S. marshal and a host of deputies. The act:

Dissolved the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, with assets to be used for public schools in the Territory.^[1]
Required an anti-polygamy oath for prospective voters, jurors and public officials.
Annulled Territorial laws allowing illegitimate children to inherit.
Required civil marriage licenses (to aid in the prosecution of polygamy).
Abrogated the common law spousal privilege to require wives to testify against their husbands^[2]
Disfranchised women (who had been enfranchised by the Territorial legislature in 1870).
Replaced local judges (including the previously powerful Probate Court judges) with federally appointed judges.
Removed local control in school textbook choice.^{[citation needed]}

In 1890 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the seizure of Church property under the Edmunds-Tucker Act in The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States.

This act was repealed in 1978.^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6]

This act is found in US Code Title 48 & 1461. The full text of the act can be found as 24 Stat. 635, with this annotation to be interpreted as Volume 24, page 635 of United States Statutes at Large.