Polygamy is now partially allowed in Utah, after the Brown family from Sister Wives filed a lawsuit two years ago.
In Utah a person can legally marry one person while living with other people they consider spouses. Bigamy, however, is still illegal.
Kody Brown from TLC's Sister Wives was investigated in 2010 on allegations that he was legally married to more than one of his four wives on the show. The family filed lawsuits in 2011. Polygamy was ruled unconstitutional in Dec. 2013, according to BuzzFeed reports.
Yesterday's ruling allows a person to legally marry one person while treating others as spouses. It also said the years of criminal investigations of the Brown family violated their rights.
Many polygamous families in Utah practice the Mormon religion which used to allow polygamy before 1890. However, the religion often gets misconstrued, according to the International Business Times, and many Mormons still practice polygamy thinking it's part of their religion.
"This is bad news for the LDS Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and its public image," Christopher Bigelow, a member of the LDS Church, who co-authored the book "Mormonism for Dummies," tells International Business Times. "As polygamy becomes legal, the LDS Church will likely come under pressure to accept polygamists back into its membership ranks. With the law on their side, polygamists could ratchet up a 'civil rights' campaign within the church along the same lines as we're currently seeing with the church's gays and feminists."
