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Utah is two steps away from making polygamy a felony in Utah again, and people practicing plural marriage are not happy.
They plan a protest rally 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Capitol rotunda.
They want HB281 quashed. That's the bill that seeks to undo the ruling in the "Sister Wives" lawsuit, make cohabitation an element of bigamy again, and define the crime as a third-degree felony. That would mean the crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.
A previous version of HB281, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, would have made polygamy a crime, but only a misdemeanor. The severity was increased in an amendment made Tuesday on the floor of the House. The bill passed 59-16.
The Senate has to decide this week whether or what action it will take on the bill. As of Saturday, it was not scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee, to which it was assigned.
Opponents want to tell the Senate, and maybe Gov. Gary Herbert if he receives any bill, that they consider the legislation an attempt to make them criminals again.
"The bill and the House Amendment are an assault upon our freedoms: speech, association, free exercise, due process, and equal application of laws," reads a call to action being emailed and texted to polygamists and other bill opponents from Joe Darger.
Darger has three wives. That family is to be at the rally Monday.
Another likely attendee is Brady Williams, who has five wives and testified against the bill during a hearing in the House.
Utah prosecutors have often expressed a policy of not charging polygamists with bigamy unless it's in association with other crimes, such as physical abuse or fraud.
Opponents have been fighting HB281 the same time as some of those related issues have manifested themselves.
Also on Monday, there will be a detention hearing in federal court in Salt Lake City for Lyle Jeffs, a bishop in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He and 11 others have been charged with fraud counts related to misuse of food stamp benefits.
And also on Monday, the jury may deliver a verdict in a civil trial in Phoenix. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., over allegations the municipal governments discriminate against people who do not follow the FLDS.
Twitter: @natecarlisle