DOJ Lawsuit Against Polygamous Mormon Communities (Feb. 12, 2016)

I wrote this piece for LawNewz.com which was published yesterday. As many of you know, I covered Warren Jeffs’s sexual assault trial in San Angelo, Texas in the summer of 2011. But I’ve followed issues surrounding the FLDS for years. I hope the current federal trial in Phoenix shakes up the church and puts an end to its corrupt practices. For the past month, the inner workings of the polygamous Mormon breakaway sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or FLDS, have been exposed in a discrimination lawsuit in federal court in downtown Phoenix. The case threatens the existence of a FLDS community—the border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona often referred to as the “twin cities.” At least the way it has operated for years. In fact, this lawsuit may finally bring an end…