Potter v. Murray City

760 F.2d 1065 (10th Cir. 1985)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Plaintiff is a former police officer of Murray City, Utah. The City terminated plaintiff's employment after it was learned that he practiced plural marriage. The basis for the discharge was that by his plural marriage plaintiff failed to support, obey and defend Article III of the Constitution of the State of Utah. P sued under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Because of the claim that Utah's proscription against plural marriages was mandated by Congress in Utah's Enabling Act as a condition for admission into the Union, the trial court on motion of the State of Utah ordered the United States to be joined as a party. The suit was dismissed on summary judgment. P argues that (1) the portion of Utah's enabling act requiring that Utah forever prohibit polygamy is void by reason of the equal footing doctrine; (2) P's termination for practicing plural marriage violated his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion; (3) his termination infringed on his fundamental right of privacy; and (4) his termination violated the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection because Utah's laws prohibiting plural marriage have long been in desuetude.