MORRISON R. WAITE
(Morrison Remick Waite)
Waite said that exempting plural marriage from criminality under the guise of religious freedom was to make religion superior to the law
This was the decision that sanctioned anti-polygamy laws.
Justice Waite asserted that religious claims exempted no one, because constitutional guarantees of religious freedom had to do with beliefs only, and did not protect these actions
Morrison Remick "Mott" Waite was an attorney, judge, and politician from Ohio. He served as the seventh Chief Justice of the United States from 1874 to his death in 1888. During his tenure, the Waite Court took a narrow interpretation of federal authority related to laws and amendments that were passed during the Reconstruction Era to expand the rights of freedmen and protect them from attacks by vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.