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Federal prosecutors are again urging a judge to uphold indictments against 11 members of a polygamous sect, this time arguing that sect members are trying to rewrite the rules of the food stamp program.
A brief filed Tuesday augments arguments prosecutors have been making throughout the case — that members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are not burdened by rules prohibiting the donation of food stamp benefits.
In one subheading titled, "Concerns that Defendants or Their Family Members May Lose their Eternal Salvation Does Not Amount to a Substantial Burden," prosecutors contend that courts have upheld that there is a difference between one's perceived religious experience and the actual religious practice. In the case of the FLDS defendants, they may perceive a loss of fulfillment by not being able to donate benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but that is not the same as burdening their religious practice.
Prosecutors also attacked a defense claim that donating SNAP benefits to their church is no different than using the benefits to bake a dish to take to a church potluck. FLDS members weren't donating a plate of brownies, but rather their entire benefits, prosecutors argue, and then the bishop was deciding how to allocate those benefits or the food purchased with them.
The defendants "want to rewrite the rules to allow the FLDS Bishop — rather than the United States Congress — to determine who benefits from the food purchased with SNAP funds," prosecutors wrote.
Eleven members of the FLDS have pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy. Prosecutors allege they were the ringleaders of a scheme to require parishioners to donate their SNAP benefits to the church.
When the benefits were used to buy food, church leaders decided who got some, prosecutors claim. Other times the benefits were used at an FLDS-controlled store and converted into cash, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Judge Ted Stewart is expected to rule within weeks on whether to dismiss the indictments.
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