Clark Waddoups | |
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Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah | |
Assumed office January 31, 2019 | |
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah | |
In office October 21,2008 –January 31,2019 | |
Appointed by | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Paul G. Cassell |
Succeeded by | David Barlow |
Personal details | |
Born | Clark Waddoups April 21,1946 Arco,Idaho |
Education | Brigham Young University (BA) University of Utah (JD) |
Clark Waddoups (born April 21,1946) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Waddoups received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University in 1970 and his Juris Doctor from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah in 1973. He was most recently a partner in the law firm of Parr,Waddoups,Brown,Gee &Loveless where he was a trial lawyer specializing in commercial litigation,including antitrust,securities,labor/employment,banking,construction,environmental and insurance claims. Waddoups has represented clients in industries such as heavy manufacturing,broadcasting,banking and finance,automotive,oil,and real estate.
Waddoups practiced for O'Melveny &Myers,a large California law firm for seven years in Los Angeles before joining Parr Waddoups in 1981. Prior to that,he served as a law clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,from 1973 to 1974.
Prior to his appointment,Judge Waddoups,who is admitted to practice in California and before all state and federal courts in Utah,was a registered lobbyist in the State of Utah,an active member of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence,and past President of the A. Sherman Christensen American Inn of Court.
Waddoups was nominated by President George W. Bush on April 29,2008. He was confirmed by the Senate on September 26,2008. [1] He received his commission on October 21,2008. He assumed senior status on January 31,2019. [2]
Waddoups has been the presiding judge in over 600 cases since his confirmation in 2008,involving contract,real property,torts,civil rights,labor,bankruptcy,intellectual property,social security,and more. [3]
On July 13,2011,Kody Brown and family,from the TLC reality television show Sister Wives ,filed a complaint in the United States 10th District Court,District of Utah,to challenge Utah's polygamy laws. [4] Jonathan Turley of George Washington University represented the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs were found to have legal standing,though no charges have been filed against them. On December 13,2013,approximately eleven months after he heard oral arguments in the case,Judge Waddoups rendered a 91-page decision [5] striking down the cohabitation clause of Utah's polygamy statute as unconstitutional,but also allowing Utah to maintain its ban on multiple marriage licenses. [6] [7] [8] Unlawful cohabitation,where prosecutors did not need to prove that a marriage ceremony had taken place (only that a couple had lived together),had been a major tool used to prosecute polygamy in Utah since the 1882 Edmunds Act. [9]
Judge Waddoups blocked an immigration law signed by Gov. Gary Herbert in March 2011 that would require police to check citizenship status upon arrest. According to ABC News,Waddoups "issued his ruling in Salt Lake City just 14 hours after the law went into effect,saying that there is sufficient evidence that at least some portions of the Utah legislation will be found unconstitutional. [10]
In December of 2009,Judge Waddoups sentenced two Davis School District employees,John and Susan Ross,for money laundering and fraud. The couple pleaded guilty and received 36 months probation,3,000 hours of community service,$10,000 in fines,and $350,000 in restitution. Waddoups issued no jail time,against the prosecutors request,causing some to ask whether the judge was "going easy" on white-collar crimes. [11]
In December 2019,Waddoups ruled that Samoans should be recognized as U.S. citizens. [12] [13] This decision was later reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [14] and is pending certiorari before the Supreme Court of the United States. [15]
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21,1996. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman,and it further allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.
Many laws in the history of the United States have addressed marriage and the rights of married people. Common themes addressed by these laws include polygamy,interracial marriage,divorce,and same-sex marriage.
Utah Constitutional Amendment 3 was an amendment to the Utah state constitution that sought to define marriage as a union exclusively between a man and woman. It passed in the November 2,2004,election,as did similar amendments in ten other states.
The Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887 was an Act of Congress that focused on restricting some practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An amendment to the earlier Edmunds Act,it was passed in response to the dispute between the United States Congress and the LDS Church regarding polygamy. The act is found in US Code Title 48 &1461,full text as 24 Stat. 635,with this annotation to be interpreted as Volume 24,page 635 of United States Statutes at Large. The act is named after its congressional sponsors,Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont and Congressman John Randolph Tucker of Virginia.
The Edmunds Act,also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882,is a United States federal statute,signed into law on March 23,1882 by President Chester A. Arthur,declaring polygamy a felony in federal territories,punishable by "a fine of not more than five hundred dollars and by imprisonment for a term of not more than five years". The act is named for U.S. Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont. The Edmunds Act also prohibited "bigamous" or "unlawful cohabitation",thus removing the need to prove that actual marriages had occurred. The act not only reinforced the 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act but also made the offense of unlawful cohabitation much easier to prove than polygamy misdemeanor and made it illegal for polygamists or cohabitants to vote,hold public office,or serve on juries in federal territories.
Michael R. Murphy is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse at the same time. Specifically,polygyny is the practice of one man taking more than one wife while polyandry is the practice of one woman taking more than one husband. Polygamy is a common marriage pattern in some parts of the world. In North America,polygamy has not been a culturally normative or legally recognized institution since the continent's colonization by Europeans.
Possibly as early as the 1830s,followers of the Latter Day Saint movement,were practicing the doctrine of polygamy or "plural marriage". After the death of church founder Joseph Smith,the doctrine was officially announced in Utah Territory in 1852 by Mormon leader Brigham Young. The practice was attributed posthumously to Smith and it began among Mormons at large,principally in Utah where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had relocated after the Illinois Mormon War.
Joseph Smith,the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement,privately taught and practiced polygamy. After Smith's death in 1844,the church he established splintered into several competing groups. Disagreement over Smith's doctrine of "plural marriage" has been among the primary reasons for multiple church schisms.
Dale Albert Kimball is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Utah since October 6,2014. On December 20,2013,the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as a result of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah's ruling in the case of Kitchen v. Herbert,which found that barring same-sex couples from marrying violates the U.S. Constitution. The issuance of those licenses was halted during the period of January 6,2014 until October 6,2014,following the resolution of a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On that day,following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal in a case that found Utah's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional,the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriage.
Cohabitation in the United States is loosely defined as two or more people,in an intimate relationship,who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union.
Brown v. Buhman,No. 14-4117,is a legal case in the United States federal courts challenging the State of Utah's criminal polygamy law. The action was filed in 2011 by polygamous patriarch Kody Brown along with his wives Meri Brown,Janelle Brown,Christine Brown,and Robyn Sullivan. The Brown family belongs to the Apostolic United Brethren faith. They are best known for the reality television series featuring them,Sister Wives.
Robert James Shelby is an American attorney and judge serving as the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Samuel Alba is a former United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Kitchen v. Herbert,961 F.Supp.2d 1181,affirmed,755 F.3d 1193;stay granted,134 S.Ct. 893 (2014);petition for certiorari denied,No. 14-124,2014 WL 3841263,is the federal case that successfully challenged Utah's constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples and similar statutes. Three same-sex couples filed suit in March 2013,naming as defendants Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert,Attorney General John Swallow,and Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen in their official capacities.
Obergefell v. Hodges,576 U.S. 644 (2015),is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The 5–4 ruling requires all fifty states,the District of Columbia,and the Insular Areas to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite-sex couples,with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities. Prior to Obergefell,same-sex marriage had already been established by statute,court ruling,or voter initiative in thirty-six states,the District of Columbia,and Guam.
Polygamy was outlawed in federal territories by the Edmunds Act,and there are laws against the practice in all 50 states,as well as the District of Columbia,Guam,and Puerto Rico. Because state laws exist,polygamy is not actively prosecuted at the federal level.
Diana Hagen is an American lawyer serving as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court. She served as a judge of the Utah Court of Appeals from 2017 to 2022.