The U.S. Department of Justice claims that a polygamous controls the Arizona-Utah border towns of Colorado City and Hildale. The particular religious sect denied housing and police services to non-church members.
The Utah Supreme Court on Thursday lifted an order that had blocked spouses in same-sex marriages from adopting their partners' children, state officials said.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy granted a request from Idaho officials on Wednesday and temporarily blocked the planned start of gay marriages in that state after a regional federal appeals court's ruling striking down the state's same-sex marriage ban.
Lawyers for the state of Utah believe they have the perfect case for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide once and for all the hotly-contested legal rights issue of whether states can ban gay marriage.
