The Volokh Conspiracy

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Crime

Mormon disciplinary councils abstaining from matters being considered by a secular court

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


Mormon church disciplinary councils, I've recently learned, generally abstain from considering matters that are being considered by a secular civil or criminal court. Does that remind you of the federal court practice of abstaining from interfering with active state court enforcement proceedings?

Me too! That's why I think of it as . . . Brigham Younger abstention.

Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law (Emeritus starting July 2024). Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any educational institution.