A federal appeals court restored Utah’s ban on polygamy Monday, handing a defeat to the family from TV’s Sister Wives and other polygamists who say the ruling could send plural families back into hiding out of fear of prosecution. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a 2013 ruling that struck down key parts of Utah’s law against bigamy, or holding multiple marriage licenses. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups had found the state violated polygamists’ right to privacy and religious freedom. The appeals court ruled that Waddoups should not have considered a lawsuit from Kody Brown and his four wives because they were never charged with a crime and there was little chance they would be.

The decision brings back a rule forbidding married people from living with a second purported “spouse,” making Utah’s law stricter than those in every other state and creating a threat of arrest for plural families. Like most polygamous families in Utah, Brown is legally married to one wife and “spiritually married” to the others.

State authorities have long said they don’t go after polygamists who otherwise follow the law, and they reiterated that stance after the ruling. Officials wanted the clause kept on the books to help in criminal cases related to polygamy.

The battlelines for the next expansion of marriage have been drawn.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/utah-polygamy-ban-restored-loss-sister-wives-family-n554466