When is a bigamist not a bigamist?
State courts have split on whether the invalidity of a second marriage can remove the taint of bigamy.
But a recent federal immigration case has put a new twist on an old story.
In U.S. v. Ali, the 6th Circuit questioned whether an Israeli citizen could avoid prosecution for falsely stating in an application for naturalization that he had never been married to more than one person at the same time.
The government contended that the defendant was a bigamist because he married a woman in Georgia before his divorce to another woman in Canada became final.
The defendant claimed his naturalization statement was truthful because his Georgia marriage was “void ab initio” under state bigamy laws which void attempted second marriages when the first has not been dissolved.
Nice try, but no cigar, said the court, explaining “[s]tatutes declaring bigamous marriages ‘void ab initio’ do not preclude convictions for bigamy, nor do they relieve applicants applying for the privileges of United States citizenship from completely and truthfully disclosing their marital relationships.”
